GUTHRIE, Okla. – Oklahoma schools are preparing for the start of the new academic year with a common concern: a shortage of special education teachers. “Teaching is a calling, but that’s really a calling. And if you ever walk into a special education classroom and spend time in there, it really is a calling,” Mike Simpson, the superintendent of Guthrie Public Schools, said. “I think there’s a shortage of teachers in general, but I think the special education teachers, it’s an even higher calling because of the needs they encounter, and some of the challenges they face every day when they’re trying to take care of their kids.”