Despite Claims, There Is No Teacher Shortage in Michigan [Michigan Capitol Confidential]

Despite Claims, There Is No Teacher Shortage in Michigan [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
"The Portage school district in Kalamazoo County averaged 41 applicants for each of the 42 full-time teacher openings it advertised in 2016-17.
One first-grade teaching position received 140 applicants.
With so many applicants seeking teacher jobs, claims of a looming teacher shortage are hard to support.
Yet Jim French, a principal at Portage Public Schools, wrote an article in which he argued that a shortage of substitute teachers is part of a bigger problem – a shortage of regular, full-time teachers. On Twitter, the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, of which French is an official, Tweeted at the Mackinac Center in a message that read, “Substitute Teacher Shortage – Now a Teacher Shortage?”
Michigan public school administrators and the mainstream media here have promoted the teacher shortage narrative. 
...To determine whether the shortage claims are valid, Michigan Capitol Confidential sent open records requests to several school districts.
The responses generally indicate that schools are getting more than 100 applicants for many open teaching positions..."