Why is there a teacher shortage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many reasons -
- Years of terrible K-12 education means that beyond ES, teachers are not capable of teaching in MS and HS - especially Math, Science and Foreign Language. Usually the liberal arts teachers were below average students who could not hack it elsewhere.
- Poor pay does not attract smart students to this field. It is still mostly middle aged white women who teach.
- Influx of more and more illegal immigrants who are lacking in education and English language skills.
- Teachers being responsible for bridging the achievement gap without any power in their class for disciplining trouble makers
- No support given to teachers.
- Toxic administrators
- Lack of curriculum, syallbus and textbooks.

You don't account for the MANY of us with advanced degrees who picked this field because we... get this... WANT TO TEACH! It isn't because we are "mostly middle aged white women" who were "below average students" who "could not hack it elsewhere." Wow. Can you be more insulting? I chose this field because I wanted to make a contribution to society, which is more important to me than cashing in at a job I wouldn't like. Guess what? A lot of my coworkers are the same.

You didn't add "tremendous disrespect" to your list of reasons why teachers are leaving. We're a little tired of people assuming we're unintelligent.

[Anonymous]

https://wtop.com/virginia/2022/09/youngkin-executive-order-aims-to-address-virginia-teacher-shortage/

Youngkin’s strategy, like FL, AZ and others, is to get more teachers into classrooms. But that doesn’t address the issue of teachers leaving in great numbers. Especially since so many now do not stay for a full 20-30 year career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://wtop.com/virginia/2022/09/youngkin-executive-order-aims-to-address-virginia-teacher-shortage/

Youngkin’s strategy, like FL, AZ and others, is to get more teachers into classrooms. But that doesn’t address the issue of teachers leaving in great numbers. Especially since so many now do not stay for a full 20-30 year career.

20-30 would be on the low end for an entire career. I’m in VA and if a newly hired teacher is going to spend an entire career in teaching they are looking at more like 35 years with changes to the retirement qualifications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://wtop.com/virginia/2022/09/youngkin-executive-order-aims-to-address-virginia-teacher-shortage/

Youngkin’s strategy, like FL, AZ and others, is to get more teachers into classrooms. But that doesn’t address the issue of teachers leaving in great numbers. Especially since so many now do not stay for a full 20-30 year career.

Typical response from the Ds asking for more money.

As discussed repeatedly in this thread, money isn't the main issue.

As long as the education establishment is not willing to discuss changes that would actually be beneficial we will be stuck here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://wtop.com/virginia/2022/09/youngkin-executive-order-aims-to-address-virginia-teacher-shortage/

Youngkin’s strategy, like FL, AZ and others, is to get more teachers into classrooms. But that doesn’t address the issue of teachers leaving in great numbers. Especially since so many now do not stay for a full 20-30 year career.

Typical response from the Ds asking for more money.

As discussed repeatedly in this thread, money isn't the main issue.

As long as the education establishment is not willing to discuss changes that would actually be beneficial we will be stuck here.

[Anonymous]

Money is a huge problem.

College has gone up 9% a year on average over the last few decades so new teachers have much bigger loans. Canceling them is a pain in the ass no what what you hear. Lots of requirements that were so unrealistic that less than 2% of teachers were able to cancel loans until Biden finally wiped loans out partially.

Salaries have not kept up with inflation. Any pay raise is often canceled out by an increase in the copays for benefits. I left FCPS, MD to MCPS after dealing with this for five years straight. They take out more for the pension now as well in MD, so that is a couple thousand a year (5% vs 7%) with a cut in the pension at retirement as well.

In MCPS the salary has gone up 23% in the last two decades but inflation has gone up over 40%. So, that is a huge drop in buying power/pay.

Housing and gas have gone up. The air B and B took away a lot of the rental market driving rentals up.

College graduates cannot afford to teach.

Behavior problems along with these incredibly difficult salary issues makes college graduates unable to become teachers economically.

In the past it was expected for mostly female staff to to be married to a higher paid spouse, that is a less likely scenario now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe that there still aren’t protests in the streets from teachers about least restrictive environment. Yet they’re stressed out and quitting in droves. Do you guys not realize that the public would be behind you on this? You just need to make some noise so lawmakers notice the problem and start asking the public what they want. Laws can be changed.

You want schools to segregate kids with developmental disabilities into separate classrooms? No, the public would not be behind you on that. Particularly not once parents of those children told their side of it.

The “f ‘em” attitude that the DMV has for children with autism, ADHD, and other developmental disorders is pretty incredible. Particularly from teachers.

Always one person in every thread who is fantasizing about warehousing kids as long as it's not their kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do this kids in diapers and non verbal come from? Are they illegal immigrants? Or do they come from generational poverty?
I can’t explain lack of previous supports and care otherwise

Oh, you’re a racist and an ableist. Thanks for sharing, so now we can dismiss any of your tirades.

[Anonymous]

To put things in perspective, pay/benefits/pension cuts/behavior is so bad that adults are leaving their “dream jobs”. There is no going back until society prioritizes education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe that there still aren’t protests in the streets from teachers about least restrictive environment. Yet they’re stressed out and quitting in droves. Do you guys not realize that the public would be behind you on this? You just need to make some noise so lawmakers notice the problem and start asking the public what they want. Laws can be changed.

You want schools to segregate kids with developmental disabilities into separate classrooms? No, the public would not be behind you on that. Particularly not once parents of those children told their side of it.

The “f ‘em” attitude that the DMV has for children with autism, ADHD, and other developmental disorders is pretty incredible. Particularly from teachers.

Always one person in every thread who is fantasizing about warehousing kids as long as it's not their kid.

The really sad thing is the number of teachers that want to do that. Anything to get them out of their classrooms, I guess. Out of sight, out of mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe that there still aren’t protests in the streets from teachers about least restrictive environment. Yet they’re stressed out and quitting in droves. Do you guys not realize that the public would be behind you on this? You just need to make some noise so lawmakers notice the problem and start asking the public what they want. Laws can be changed.

You want schools to segregate kids with developmental disabilities into separate classrooms? No, the public would not be behind you on that. Particularly not once parents of those children told their side of it.

The “f ‘em” attitude that the DMV has for children with autism, ADHD, and other developmental disorders is pretty incredible. Particularly from teachers.

Always one person in every thread who is fantasizing about warehousing kids as long as it's not their kid.

The really sad thing is the number of teachers that want to do that. Anything to get them out of their classrooms, I guess. Out of sight, out of mind.

Well, I can see how your mind works through that comment. How disgusting.

I can say that I have never met a teacher who “wants to them out of their classrooms.: We do need all sped inclusion classes to be cotaught so that one teacher can manage behavior (for ALL kids not just SPED) while the other is teaching. It works, but there just isn’t interest from parents at large, tax payers etc.

[Anonymous]

I am a teacher. There have been very few times in my career when a SpEd student bothered me. (This was usually related to safety issues in my STEM courses if certain ED kids were having a bad day regularly.) Usually they have a lot of support. It’s typically the 504 kids or neurotypicals who are much more likely to act like donkey holes. Sped kids are great!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe that there still aren’t protests in the streets from teachers about least restrictive environment. Yet they’re stressed out and quitting in droves. Do you guys not realize that the public would be behind you on this? You just need to make some noise so lawmakers notice the problem and start asking the public what they want. Laws can be changed.

You want schools to segregate kids with developmental disabilities into separate classrooms? No, the public would not be behind you on that. Particularly not once parents of those children told their side of it.

The “f ‘em” attitude that the DMV has for children with autism, ADHD, and other developmental disorders is pretty incredible. Particularly from teachers.

Always one person in every thread who is fantasizing about warehousing kids as long as it's not their kid.

The really sad thing is the number of teachers that want to do that. Anything to get them out of their classrooms, I guess. Out of sight, out of mind.

Well, I can see how your mind works through that comment. How disgusting.

I can say that I have never met a teacher who “wants to them out of their classrooms.: We do need all sped inclusion classes to be cotaught so that one teacher can manage behavior (for ALL kids not just SPED) while the other is teaching. It works, but there just isn’t interest from parents at large, tax payers etc.

I take it you missed the earlier comment about getting rid of the practice of placing kids in the least restrictive environment. That was almost certainly from a teacher. And that wasn't the first post on dcum like that.

Separately there was the parent who didn't care about supports as long as her kids didn't need to be exposed to kids with special needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Give visas to teachers from India.

We had an Indian science teacher last year. She quit at the end of the year.
She said American kids are too wild and there is no discipline in American public high schools. She couldn’t take it.
You have to be tough to survive as a teacher at most schools in the us especially with no respect and low pay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give visas to teachers from India.

We had an Indian science teacher last year. She quit at the end of the year.
She said American kids are too wild and there is no discipline in American public high schools. She couldn’t take it.
You have to be tough to survive as a teacher at most schools in the us especially with no respect and low pay

+1

We had a similar situation at my school a few years ago. He couldn’t handle the discipline and said kids should respect the teacher because that’s just what you do. I said that would be lovely and happens in some cultures but not the US. He last four months and it was a nightmare trying to support him.