It's a serious shortage

It’s a serious shortage

School districts in the Washington/Baltimore metropolitan area are extremely short of teachers.   In fact, as the beginning of the school year approaches school districts are reporting deficits of hundreds of teachers.   One of the reasons for the shortages being offered is low salary. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the U.S. reports that the average high school teacher in Maryland is earning $69,070 and the average elementary teacher in Maryland is earning $67,340 and that is for 200 days a year.  Benefits are pretty good as well.  The Kirwan Commission is recommending increases over the next 5-10 years that will raise those salaries even more.

So the answer to why there are not enough teachers is not money.  It is probably the working conditions in our schools today.   In order to fight this problem, districts are taking an alternative approach rather than trying to look at the conditions that are driving teachers out of their jobs within a few years of starting.   The solution now is to increase the speed at which teachers are coming through the teacher preparation pipeline.  It would appear the approach is to put as many or more new teachers in the backdoor of classrooms to replace those who are walking out the front door.

Two plans seem to be gaining prominence.  The first plan gets kids to commit to a teaching profession in high school. As a reward the district will pay for some of the student’s education.   If after making the commitment, the student changes his/her mind then the student or the family has to repay the district.  This plan is being used in Virginia but is not paying off that well.   Districts are seeing net gains of about 20 graduates a year.  Hardly enough to solve the problem.

The second approach will definitely fill classrooms, but I am not sure it will give us teachers.  With this plan, young people can go into classrooms after two years in college. They can learn on the job and eventually get their degree that way.  When they are interning during the junior and senior years of college, they will be mentored by an experienced teacher.  Here is what I can never understand.  Why is it that we think people can become teachers without proper training?  What other profession would consider letting someone “practice” on the job with NO professional training and get that training while they learn.   Being a teacher is not an industrial trade.  It is a professional job that requires a great deal of academic training that forms the basis of the practical on-the-job work that comes later.  Physicians intern AFTER their medical training not before, so do all of the other professions.

Our kids deserve better.   Everyone is correct there is a serious shortage.  It is a shortage of people who are thinking strategically to build a trained and talented teacher pool.