Reply to Why is there a teacher shortage?

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "Why is there a teacher shortage?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]The teacher shortage is only in some subjects and in some areas.  There are shortages in some parts of the country because a) cost of living is too high (think California or NYC) b) the area is undesirable to live or c) the schools don't pay enough (plenty of people with a masters degree and 20 years in only making about 40-45K a year in some areas).  There are shortages all over in Spanish bilingual, special ed, math and science.  Sped is a shortage area because it is hard to work with sped kids and the paperwork is massive.  Spanish bilingual is severely understaffed across most of the U.S. because of huge numbers of students needing bilingual ed and not enough truly bilingual folks with teaching degrees.  Even in my highly desirable location and district, we routinely have 0 applicants for open bilingual positions.  We end up putting people with non teaching degrees in those positions (so, in other words, TOTALLY unqualified) or people who either don't speak English very well or Spanish very well.  Some schools go through multiple subs all year long.

None of the above addresses all the other reasons why teachers are leaving the profession.  I don't think it is a good field to enter and I wouldn't encourage my own children to pursue it, even thought I personally LOVE the work.  The only thing that makes teaching financially viable is the pension, and I don't believe there's any way the entire pension system in my state is going to stay afloat that many years more.  Young people don't think about these things.  I didn't when I started teaching.  But 20 year olds really need to start hearing from teachers in their 50s' and 60's or retired teachers.  They need to know how bad off the pension funds are.  They need to know that choosing this career will mean they will pretty much always need a side gig, summers AND school year.  They need to know they'll spend an equivalent of 1-2 years of college tuition for their own children on their students over the course of their careers.  Plenty of better fields out there.  Yes, nothing beats the vacation time.  And if that's enough for you, then awesome.  I'm glad I chose teaching even if I would have chosen differently could I go back in time.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics