Why is there a teacher shortage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer is teachers are treated like unpro crap and blamed for society's ills while being paid peanuts and getting no support from the admin or union.

That’s the reason. I can’t think of another profession requiring a specialized degree and license that pays so little

I can’t think of any other profession that gets over 3 months off per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer is teachers are treated like unpro crap and blamed for society's ills while being paid peanuts and getting no support from the admin or union.

That’s the reason. I can’t think of another profession requiring a specialized degree and license that pays so little

I can’t think of any other profession that gets over 3 months off per year.

You mean a 2 month unpaid furlough, correct? Nobody gets 3 months “off.”

Teachers aren’t paid for the summer. They are essentially out of work for 2 entire months.

Try again. The “summers off” argument has been disproven time and time again.

[Anonymous]

I know this isn't politically correct to say, but it needs to be said.

I'm very sorry for the families with very high need special needs children. I am. I understand how expensive it is, and why they need the support. However, a lot of our problems in public schools right now are due to the fact that the system has gone overboard in accommodating every child with every situation. There are children who need 1:1 or even 2:1 attention and need far more help and support than the teaching system can accommodate. And when you have 5-12 SPED teachers who are handling a school of 300-600 students and you have several children who need 1:1 attention, then you are taking away those teachers from supporting the children who need mild or a middle amount of support. Then the regular teachers who are already teaching 20-25 students have to take their time to provide the support for the milder cases. The schools currently do not have the staff and cannot hire the staff to provide the support for the children who need a high amount of attention.

The system cannot sustain itself with the no child left behind policy. And while i understand how beneficial it is for these children to be in the regular gen ed population, the system needs to set up special education services for the children with extreme special needs. I've watched three children over my children's elementary school years that demanded so many resources from the SPED and regular teachers that it severely weakened the services they were providing to hundreds of other children. That's unsustainable when we start the year with holes in the staffing that have not been filled.

And until we can address the huge drain on the teaching staff caused by a handful of students, we are not going to see the situation get better for teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this isn't politically correct to say, but it needs to be said.

I'm very sorry for the families with very high need special needs children. I am. I understand how expensive it is, and why they need the support. However, a lot of our problems in public schools right now are due to the fact that the system has gone overboard in accommodating every child with every situation. There are children who need 1:1 or even 2:1 attention and need far more help and support than the teaching system can accommodate. And when you have 5-12 SPED teachers who are handling a school of 300-600 students and you have several children who need 1:1 attention, then you are taking away those teachers from supporting the children who need mild or a middle amount of support. Then the regular teachers who are already teaching 20-25 students have to take their time to provide the support for the milder cases. The schools currently do not have the staff and cannot hire the staff to provide the support for the children who need a high amount of attention.

The system cannot sustain itself with the no child left behind policy. And while i understand how beneficial it is for these children to be in the regular gen ed population, the system needs to set up special education services for the children with extreme special needs. I've watched three children over my children's elementary school years that demanded so many resources from the SPED and regular teachers that it severely weakened the services they were providing to hundreds of other children. That's unsustainable when we start the year with holes in the staffing that have not been filled.

And until we can address the huge drain on the teaching staff caused by a handful of students, we are not going to see the situation get better for teachers.

The thing these posters never seem to think about is that children with special needs don't somehow magically require significantly less support in a segregated classroom environment. Some might be able to get by with slightly less support, generally if the curriculum expectations are heavily modified, but that is more than offset by the expenses of running separate schools for these children.

Just be honest and say you don't want your children to have to be exposed to kids with special needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer is teachers are treated like unpro crap and blamed for society's ills while being paid peanuts and getting no support from the admin or union.

That’s the reason. I can’t think of another profession requiring a specialized degree and license that pays so little

I can’t think of any other profession that gets over 3 months off per year.

You mean a 2 month unpaid furlough, correct? Nobody gets 3 months “off.”

Teachers aren’t paid for the summer. They are essentially out of work for 2 entire months.

Try again. The “summers off” argument has been disproven time and time again.

Their benefits remain unchanged and they have the option to be paid over 12 months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer is teachers are treated like unpro crap and blamed for society's ills while being paid peanuts and getting no support from the admin or union.

That’s the reason. I can’t think of another profession requiring a specialized degree and license that pays so little

I can’t think of any other profession that gets over 3 months off per year.

Me neither since it's more like two months. Even that doesn't help. There is a shortage and it will get worse. Nobody seems to care to do anything about it. Eventually, schools will go to a model that already exists in places. One certified teacher will teach online while many classrooms will watch. They will employ monitors to watch the kids in person in the classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer is teachers are treated like unpro crap and blamed for society's ills while being paid peanuts and getting no support from the admin or union.

That’s the reason. I can’t think of another profession requiring a specialized degree and license that pays so little

The pay for teachers in the DMV isn't bad. Teacher salaries in MoCo, for instance, are pretty similar to average RN salaries. Plus they can use the summers to either make more money or avoid child care costs.

The problem here isn't pay. It is workload.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer is teachers are treated like unpro crap and blamed for society's ills while being paid peanuts and getting no support from the admin or union.

That’s the reason. I can’t think of another profession requiring a specialized degree and license that pays so little

I can’t think of any other profession that gets over 3 months off per year.

You mean a 2 month unpaid furlough, correct? Nobody gets 3 months “off.”

Teachers aren’t paid for the summer. They are essentially out of work for 2 entire months.

Try again. The “summers off” argument has been disproven time and time again.

Disproven? Look at the employment terms. They specifically say summers are off. What is "disproven"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer is teachers are treated like unpro crap and blamed for society's ills while being paid peanuts and getting no support from the admin or union.

That’s the reason. I can’t think of another profession requiring a specialized degree and license that pays so little

I can’t think of any other profession that gets over 3 months off per year.

You mean a 2 month unpaid furlough, correct? Nobody gets 3 months “off.”

Teachers aren’t paid for the summer. They are essentially out of work for 2 entire months.

Try again. The “summers off” argument has been disproven time and time again.

Their benefits remain unchanged and they have the option to be paid over 12 months.

They pay for their benefits in each paycheck during the school year. If they choose, they can have appr. 18% of each check withheld so they can get paychecks in the summer. It took me until my 9th year of teaching to be able to afford to cut my school year paychecks to do the pay all year. I couldn't afford to pay my bills when I would only net $1100 every two weeks. I had a student loan, rent, food, gas, car payment, etc. Plus I had to spend a lot of my own money on my classroom. I even brought in paper towels and soap because so few of my students brought it in. Those were some very lean years. It's still lean but I started tutoring years ago to supplement my paycheck and I paid off my loan faster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer is teachers are treated like unpro crap and blamed for society's ills while being paid peanuts and getting no support from the admin or union.

That’s the reason. I can’t think of another profession requiring a specialized degree and license that pays so little

The pay for teachers in the DMV isn't bad. Teacher salaries in MoCo, for instance, are pretty similar to average RN salaries. Plus they can use the summers to either make more money or avoid child care costs.

The problem here isn't pay. It is workload.

People are willing to do massive workloads if the pay is good. Pay is always the answer.

But if pay isn’t going to change, then workload needs to lessen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer is teachers are treated like unpro crap and blamed for society's ills while being paid peanuts and getting no support from the admin or union.

That’s the reason. I can’t think of another profession requiring a specialized degree and license that pays so little

I can’t think of any other profession that gets over 3 months off per year.

You mean a 2 month unpaid furlough, correct? Nobody gets 3 months “off.”

Teachers aren’t paid for the summer. They are essentially out of work for 2 entire months.

Try again. The “summers off” argument has been disproven time and time again.

2+ months in the summer, 2 weeks Christmas, 1 week Xmas, 2-5 days for mid winter break, other Mondays and Fridays (Memorial Day, Labor Day, etc.), handful of snow days. It’s a lot of time off. No one else can take this much time off- period, even unpaid. You can complain about not being paid for the excessive time you aren’t working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer is teachers are treated like unpro crap and blamed for society's ills while being paid peanuts and getting no support from the admin or union.

That’s the reason. I can’t think of another profession requiring a specialized degree and license that pays so little

I can’t think of any other profession that gets over 3 months off per year.

You mean a 2 month unpaid furlough, correct? Nobody gets 3 months “off.”

Teachers aren’t paid for the summer. They are essentially out of work for 2 entire months.

Try again. The “summers off” argument has been disproven time and time again.

Their benefits remain unchanged and they have the option to be paid over 12 months.

They pay for their benefits in each paycheck during the school year. If they choose, they can have appr. 18% of each check withheld so they can get paychecks in the summer. It took me until my 9th year of teaching to be able to afford to cut my school year paychecks to do the pay all year. I couldn't afford to pay my bills when I would only net $1100 every two weeks. I had a student loan, rent, food, gas, car payment, etc. Plus I had to spend a lot of my own money on my classroom. I even brought in paper towels and soap because so few of my students brought it in. Those were some very lean years. It's still lean but I started tutoring years ago to supplement my paycheck and I paid off my loan faster.

To be clear, they **and the school districts** pay for those benefits. Schools are paying thousands of dollars over the summer months to continue a teacher's benefits. It's not the teachers themselves are paying the full premiums for the summer months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer is teachers are treated like unpro crap and blamed for society's ills while being paid peanuts and getting no support from the admin or union.

That’s the reason. I can’t think of another profession requiring a specialized degree and license that pays so little

If you add up summer plus all the other breaks and days off during the year it is over 3 months

I can’t think of any other profession that gets over 3 months off per year.

Me neither since it's more like two months. Even that doesn't help. There is a shortage and it will get worse. Nobody seems to care to do anything about it. Eventually, schools will go to a model that already exists in places. One certified teacher will teach online while many classrooms will watch. They will employ monitors to watch the kids in person in the classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer is teachers are treated like unpro crap and blamed for society's ills while being paid peanuts and getting no support from the admin or union.

That’s the reason. I can’t think of another profession requiring a specialized degree and license that pays so little

I can’t think of any other profession that gets over 3 months off per year.

Me neither since it's more like two months. Even that doesn't help. There is a shortage and it will get worse. Nobody seems to care to do anything about it. Eventually, schools will go to a model that already exists in places. One certified teacher will teach online while many classrooms will watch. They will employ monitors to watch the kids in person in the classrooms.

Summer alone is 2.5 months. There are lot more days/weeks off and vacations during the school year. It is a lot of time off

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer is teachers are treated like unpro crap and blamed for society's ills while being paid peanuts and getting no support from the admin or union.

That’s the reason. I can’t think of another profession requiring a specialized degree and license that pays so little

The pay for teachers in the DMV isn't bad. Teacher salaries in MoCo, for instance, are pretty similar to average RN salaries. Plus they can use the summers to either make more money or avoid child care costs.

The problem here isn't pay. It is workload.

People are willing to do massive workloads if the pay is good. Pay is always the answer.

But if pay isn’t going to change, then workload needs to lessen.

For massive pay, yes. But public sector employees will never get massive pay. 10-20% increases in pay aren't going to change the shortage problem.