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Across the nation there is a growing shortage of schoolteachers. Frustrated, poorly paid, overworked, lacking resources, it would seem as if the educational model is being intentionally starved in order to drive teachers away from the occupation.
In some parts of the nation, teacher’s salaries are doing a bit better and thus the brain drain is less severe, but in areas such as the Midwest or Arizona, teaching positions are becoming rarer and to staff for. Even in the light of renewed interests since the 2009 Great Recession, there are still around 240,000 positions across the nation still open as of 2016.
The educational market however is still trending downward with an eight percent decline every year, with only a third of those being due to retirement, in the current number of teachers in the schools nationwide. This is a staggering loss of thousands of teachers every year. Urban schools with dense student populations are suffering the greatest losses.
With salaries declining since the 1990s it appears there is no incentive to change this downward trend despite the effect it is having on the national educational agenda. Teachers earn 20% less than equally educated professionals in other careers.
Working conditions continue to deteriorate as school districts cut spending, reduce books, school supplies and computer tools. Classes continue to grow larger, with more students living under adverse economic conditions mean more stress on teachers, more challenges to the educational model and with issues such as the Common Core placing greater emphasis on testing rather than learning, it would seem the teaching profession is poised for failure or even complete collapse in less than two decades.
REFERENCES:
Westervelt, Eric. “Frustration. Burnout. Attrition. It’s Time To Address The National Teacher Shortage.” NPR, NPR, 15 Sept. 2016, www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/09/15/493808213/frustration-burnout-attrition-its-time-to-address-the-national-teacher-shortage.
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WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Do you think this downward trend is reversible?
What do you think it would take at the national level to being to change these dismal numbers?
What is it like where you live? Do you think the school system is fair and balanced, providing a quality education to everyone in your school districts?
Does it seem the school system is being dismantled with the ultimate goal to create an engine for “private only” educational models?
Can we continue to treat education as a second-class service and expect to produce quality students who go on to to be successful in college?
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