After years of underfunding public education and diverting money to charters and vouchers, Arizona is coping with an acute teacher shortage.

“On a Saturday in late April, Principal Theresa Nickolich gave her best recruiting pitch to every person who walked in the door.

“Come teach at Clarendon Elementary School in the Osborn School District, she told the candidates at the job fair.

“You’ll be part of a system that will support you. You’ll feel like family in a professional environment built up over years of strong leadership. You will be an anchor of stability for children in need, many of them poor.

“You will have a rewarding career. You will change lives.

“But across from Nickolich stood both her biggest recruiting challenge and an emblem of one of the biggest crises facing public education in Arizona.

“Almost no qualified applicants walked in.

“It was the last job fair of the…