States have taken different approaches in addressing the need for increased compensation among teachers by spreading pay increases across multiple years, linking increases to performance, and connecting them to sweeping K-12 policy changes, such as school vouchers. The earn-as-you-learn Registered Apprenticeship model is an increasingly popular policy choice, which helps to close equity gaps for students from low-income backgrounds and students of color who want to enter the profession. Some efforts to reduce the teacher shortage, such as easing requirements to be a teacher, remain controversial and potentially counterproductive when considering education quality.