Alleged teacher shortage

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There isn’t a shortage. There are enough certified teachers to work but they are choosing not to. Of course, the school districts don’t care about why teachers leave.

This is false. Less people are majoring in education. There is data to support it.

Fewer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There isn’t a shortage. There are enough certified teachers to work but they are choosing not to. Of course, the school districts don’t care about why teachers leave.

This is false. Less people are majoring in education. There is data to support it.

The correct usage is fewer people. There is data to support this.

[Anonymous]

Fewer people majoring in education does not necessarily mean there is a teacher shortage. Nor does having people leave at the end of a school year -- people quit jobs in every profession. People quitting after 5 years also does not mean a teacher shortage. Also not applicable is saying that "we have to fill jobs with young people who dont have a lot of experience."

A shortage is when open positions literally cannot be filled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Legitimately curious where people get their information who claim there is a teacher shortage in FCPS.

I am sure there are shortages in specialized subject areas, especially special ed, but not buying it re general ed classroom teachers.

I understand there are no substitutes since their daily pay is like $100 pre-tax and our school sent an email to parents begging them to get certified, put names on sublist. Just havent seen any sign the county has widespread difficulty filling normal classroom positions.

Teacher at FCPS. There are many schools who had long term subs all year in gen ed classrooms. There is a teacher shortage. I also think once schools decide on a plan there will be a lot of teachers resigning if they are scared to go back or if there are child care issues. We were hiring at my school and the amount of resumed coming in the past few years have gone down drastically.

+1 I am a teacher in another system.

We have 5 long-term subs in my school. These weren't subs covering for maternity or illness or FMLA, these were subs hired for long-term positions because my principal couldn't find applicants that the principal was willing to hire. The shortage isn't a joke.

There are a lot of applicants though. Reflect on that OP. Why didn't my principal, desperate to fill all the open slots, hire any of those applicants. Again, OP, think about what that means for a minute. I'll wait ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Legitimately curious where people get their information who claim there is a teacher shortage in FCPS.

I am sure there are shortages in specialized subject areas, especially special ed, but not buying it re general ed classroom teachers.

I understand there are no substitutes since their daily pay is like $100 pre-tax and our school sent an email to parents begging them to get certified, put names on sublist. Just havent seen any sign the county has widespread difficulty filling normal classroom positions.

Teacher at FCPS. There are many schools who had long term subs all year in gen ed classrooms. There is a teacher shortage. I also think once schools decide on a plan there will be a lot of teachers resigning if they are scared to go back or if there are child care issues. We were hiring at my school and the amount of resumed coming in the past few years have gone down drastically.

+1 I am a teacher in another system.

We have 5 long-term subs in my school. These weren't subs covering for maternity or illness or FMLA, these were subs hired for long-term positions because my principal couldn't find applicants that the principal was willing to hire. The shortage isn't a joke.

There are a lot of applicants though. Reflect on that OP. Why didn't my principal, desperate to fill all the open slots, hire any of those applicants. Again, OP, think about what that means for a minute. I'll wait ...

This has not been my experience at all. This is part of why parents are highly selective which school pyramid they buy into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There are a lot of applicants though. Reflect on that OP. Why didn't my principal, desperate to fill all the open slots, hire any of those applicants. Again, OP, think about what that means for a minute. I'll wait ...

Maybe next year is different. It's not an ideal world, and I'd take an less-than-ideal live instructor over distance learning every single time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There isn’t a shortage. There are enough certified teachers to work but they are choosing not to. Of course, the school districts don’t care about why teachers leave.

This is false. Less people are majoring in education. There is data to support it.

Fewer, not less. That is true but there are plenty of certified teachers who aren’t currently teaching. So there isn’t a shortage when there are enough certified teachers to do the job. They are choosing not to teach. Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There are a lot of applicants though. Reflect on that OP. Why didn't my principal, desperate to fill all the open slots, hire any of those applicants. Again, OP, think about what that means for a minute. I'll wait ...

Maybe next year is different. It's not an ideal world, and I'd take an less-than-ideal live instructor over distance learning every single time.

Absolutely this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There isn’t a shortage. There are enough certified teachers to work but they are choosing not to. Of course, the school districts don’t care about why teachers leave.

This is false. Less people are majoring in education. There is data to support it.

Fewer, not less. That is true but there are plenty of certified teachers who aren’t currently teaching. So there isn’t a shortage when there are enough certified teachers to do the job. They are choosing not to teach. Why?

DP here most non working certified teachers I know are SAHM’s unrelated to Covid. What is your point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There are a lot of applicants though. Reflect on that OP. Why didn't my principal, desperate to fill all the open slots, hire any of those applicants. Again, OP, think about what that means for a minute. I'll wait ...

Maybe next year is different. It's not an ideal world, and I'd take an less-than-ideal live instructor over distance learning every single time.

It’s not about having an “ideal” instructor. VDOE has strict guidelines for certification. FCPS has 90 unfilled vacancies throughout the 2018-2019 school year. It was worse in other places. I’m not a teacher any longer, but I still hold my certification. If I don’t keep up on my credits, it will expire, which is what I plan to allow it to do.

VDOE even extended licenses for 10 years (I think starting last year) likely to widen the applicant pool.

[Anonymous]

^^^had not has

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There isn’t a shortage. There are enough certified teachers to work but they are choosing not to. Of course, the school districts don’t care about why teachers leave.

If I had a rich husband, I’d quit too.

Any teacher I know who quit answers the question “what are you doing now?” with “I don’t need to work. Hubby/DH will pay for everything! He has a fabulous job and makes 5x more!” Well, basically that’s their response. It’s annoying when you aren’t part of the “rich hubby club.” But, good for them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know the history of all this, but maybe one of the transformations coming out of all this is really finding a way to recruit college grads into the profession. College grad underemployment is huge and getting worse. It's a 2:1 value proposition because it gives this group a profession to dedicate themselves and draws from a younger, healthier population.

"The unemployment rate for young college graduates exceeds that of the general population, and about 41 percent of recent college graduates -- and 33.8 percent of all college graduates -- are underemployed in that they are working in jobs that don't require a college degree, according to new data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York."

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/02/18/41-recent-grads-work-jobs-not-requiring-degree

Well, more people are going to college assuming it’ll get them a good job... then they realize they’re competing with all the others who thought it’d be great to study the same thing too... I even know lawyers who can’t get their first job because there’s more applicants than openings in the state they took the test in.

When everyone goes to college and many jobs are being replaced with computers, we are going to see less college grads landing career jobs and ending up at Starbucks.

It’s sad.

[Anonymous]

If the principal hires a long-term sub, they are in essence filling the position. I dont understand the rationale here -- so they are willing to hire someone they see as crappy or unqualified for a year? Sucks to be those kids.

Also there is still someone willing to do the work if they took the LT sub job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There are a lot of applicants though. Reflect on that OP. Why didn't my principal, desperate to fill all the open slots, hire any of those applicants. Again, OP, think about what that means for a minute. I'll wait ...

Maybe next year is different. It's not an ideal world, and I'd take an less-than-ideal live instructor over distance learning every single time.

It’s not about having an “ideal” instructor. VDOE has strict guidelines for certification. FCPS has 90 unfilled vacancies throughout the 2018-2019 school year. It was worse in other places. I’m not a teacher any longer, but I still hold my certification. If I don’t keep up on my credits, it will expire, which is what I plan to allow it to do.

VDOE even extended licenses for 10 years (I think starting last year) likely to widen the applicant pool.

Again, what is past is past. Government made policy that resulted in massive unemployment, put small businesses out of business, and made us endure terrible distance learning. They could certainly look for ways to expand the teacher population further, particularly if that brings into scope a younger, healthier pool of candidates.