Part 3: What is happening to teaching jobs

Interesting bits of news from around the states on hiring and firing of teachers. First is to keep your wits about you as reported by EIA. In 2003 California issued 20,000 pink slips to teachers and ended up only firing 3,000. Contracts in most states and districts require ample notice for layoffs which means that many teachers will be understandably upset now – but when the stimulus dollars start to trickle out, may ultimately be saved.

Hell of a way to do business. That kind of upheaval has a lasting effect on a person. The “safety” of an education career will not feel safe at all after this roller coaster ride. Give credit to Arizona which is trying to slide the date of pink slip notification in hopes of having a much clearer picture in June. Much less stress for teachers.

But things are still a guessing game for states and districts. No one knows what will happen with the stimulus dollars. And we are still getting concerns of the Governor control aspect of the funding. As we reported, Gov. Sandford from SC was going to use it to trim so debt and now we hear that Gov. Strickland from OH might also restrict what school districts receive. The article makes it very clear to me that the stimulus dollar distribution is anything but clear.

Meanwhile, back on the recruitment side of things we continue to see a dramatic increase in people attending our recruitment events. Since the Utah school board unanimously approved all ABCTE certifications, we are doing our first big recruitment push there and the results continue to be amazing. If you watch the video on this you can see the packed room. AP even gets into the act with their article on career changers moving into teaching.

So the question is: Do you go into teaching now or not?

And the answer is - - yes - - especially in math and science. Even though there may be some short term layoffs due to the economic crisis, the fact remains that we have still have ever increasing retirements and less people going into teaching. The NCTAF Policy Brief on the BabyBoom Tsunami clearly shows the looming retirement crisis that will hit teaching in the next few years. 1.7 million teachers approaching retirement is not to be taking lightly and most alternative teaching certification programs take around a year to complete. And news flash - - 2007 broke the record for the number of births in the US – the highest ever. In three years those kids head to school and I am pretty sure are going to need teachers.

So teaching is still a great place to be. And even though this is a tough year, the need for teachers will turn around quickly. If we don’t have some great people in the pipeline, our shortage will become a crisis fast.

Series on What is Happening to Teaching
Part 1
Part 2

Part 4

Part 5