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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Probably how unstable it is. I’m from the northeast like many teachers in this area. It’s extra difficult to get a teaching job in a union state as tenure helps maintain teachers and the unions help attract plenty of applicants from all over when someone does leave. Every year (unless you have tenure) you have to worry if you’ll be given a contract for the following year. You can be let go for something as simple as an admin not liking you. I know it’s easier to find a new school to work at if you’re in a state with a high need for teachers, but even that means people who need to find a new school will have to deal with new commutes. I would not buy a house as a teacher unless I had tenure or felt very secure for years at a school in a non-tenure state. I know you can be let go from any type of job, but I don’t know any other job where most people worry each spring for they’ll be asked to continue their position the following year or have to apply and find another school. It’s truly unstable. Also, the salary freezes. There’s a set scale yet I’ve been hearing teachers here will be paid the same amount next year because they can’t afford to move anyone up on the scales. It seems like this can happen a lot. In the northeast I’ve seen teachers get pink slipped and spend weeks looking for another position and feeling so much stress but luckily a lot of the time they end up being able to afford to keep them on. Also, many teachers are let go before the year where they’ll be granted tenure.

Just not a very stable profession, but obviously right now with COVID that may seem silly to say. Most jobs aren’t stable enough to get you through the pandemic, but a pandemic is a rare event. Normally most jobs are far more stable (unless you are a tenured teacher, which most US teachers are not). [/quote]

I'm in a union state and my union took pay freezes on two contracts (so 6 years total) when the 2008 recession hit.  I fully expect that we'll take another pay freeze on our next contract and or a pay cut.  While we have some job security, I think teaching, just like many other profession, is going to take a massive hit in the next year or two and plenty of teachers will lose their jobs simply because there isn't money to pay us.  Many states are losing 25% of their budgets.  And that's just for *this* year.  I expect next year we'll take an even bigger hit.  I won't be surprised to see class sizes in the 40's again like we had many years ago.
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