There are shortages that for consumers are glaringly obvious, like disinfectants during a pandemic, and they cause a panic. Then there are others that are equally urgent to society but are not even noticeable to the general population. A troubling teachers’ shortage across the United States is an example of the latter. All across the country teachers have quit their jobs for any number of very valid reasons: the hazards and frustrations caused by Covid, the indignity of dealing with overbearing and aggressive parents, and most important, the frightening school shootings that have become all too common.
“We’re seeing what I guess we could call a mad scramble to try to fill classrooms,” Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association.”
The current teacher shortage is not unprecedented, there have been others historically, one of the most severe was in the early 1990s. But the number of open positions– more than 8,000 in Florida alone –is now spelling trouble for many school districts.
The attrition trend that had been building for years has now become acute. “There’s been a teacher shortage for years. What you’re seeing now is that it’s reached a tipping point,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
According to the AFT, dismally low salaries are among the top reasons people are steering away from teaching careers. A lack of respect for teachers, some believe, may also fuel today’s teaching shortage. Not only are there fewer and fewer teachers in the classroom–and with a projected continuing attrition rate signaling more trouble for the future– but even among those that do become teachers at least 30% will never start practicing the profession thanks to these discouraging data.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic, with all of its extra pressures on educators, has also helped push current and potential teachers away. “Teachers have assumed so many more responsibilities in the aftermath of COVID and yet have to do all the old things (too),” said Weingarten.
With so many open teaching positions in school districts across the U.S., it is the students who have so much at stake. “Our classes are going to be packed to the max and unfortunately kids are going to have long-term (substitute teachers) or teachers who are not qualified to teach those specific classes,” said Zuniga.
The AFT said one of the best ways to get teachers into the classroom is simply to offer better salaries. School districts in Nevada and Texas have already raised their starting salaries for teachers. The Dallas Independent School District is now offering a $60,000 starting salary as well as signing bonuses and other incentives to new hires. The district reports that it now has 98% of its positions filled.
Some school districts have relaxed teaching qualifications to make it easier for new teachers to begin their careers. That can mean anything from allowing teachers into the classroom before they’re fully certified, as school districts in Texas, Arizona and Alabama are doing, to hiring those without any degree at all.
In Florida, military veterans who have served four years can now become teachers even if they don’t hold a bachelor’s degree. The state’s education commissioner reports that more than 80 veterans have already applied for positions. While this may seem to be a solution, we have to wonder, what kind of education can students get when the school is not only short-staffed but the teachers they do hire are either under-qualified or downright unqualified?
Weingarten rightly believes that reducing job requirements to teach young people sends a negative message to an already bruised profession. “Would we even be thinking about this if it was a pilot? Or an engineer? Or a doctor?” she asked. “It’s part of the disrespect that you think that you can just put a body in front of kids.”
It is little wonder that despite the resources that the U.S. throws at education, recent data from international math and science assessments still show that U.S. students continue to lag behind many other advanced industrial nations. A warm body in front of a class of students is not the same as having a qualified, caring, experienced teacher.
