A new report says the shortage of skilled teachers in the United States is a bigger problem than people may think. The not-for-profit, Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, or EPI, published the report last week. It was the first in a six-part series that aims to examine the causes of, and solutions for, the national teacher shortage in U.S. public schools. Education experts have long been concerned about rising teacher shortages. The issue has grown more severe in recent years. EPI’s report notes that less than 10 years ago, many teachers were looking for jobs. Then, in 2012, public schools were looking for teachers. That year, the country faced a shortage of 20,000 school teachers. By the 2017-2018 school year, the country was estimated to have a shortage of over 110,000 teachers. Those numbers come from the Learning Policy Institute.