We should be asking for a huge raise, lol. As of right now, my district is short 200+ teachers, the school district east of ours is short 150+ teachers, and the district west of us is short 100+ teachers. To me these numbers are crazy. If I had a child who had a long term sub their whole year I wouldn’t be to happy.
Why Is This Happening?
I think every organization in the U.S. right now is suffering from a worker shortage. For our field, I believe a lot of teachers who were close to retirement just retired. I also believe it’s the state of Texas’s fault for requiring so many certifications for new teachers.
I spoke with a client of ours, and she informed me that she had to take the ESL, SPED, Core 4-8, PPR, EC-6 Core, and the STR exam. That is six exams!!! I told her that was crazy. I never had to do those many exams at one time, let alone ever. She is not the only one going through this. A lot of future teachers are having trouble with a few of these exams. It honestly aggravates me that we are in dire need of teachers, but we are making these massive entry barriers for new teachers to come in.
My Hypothesis
This is my educated guess of what may happen. Either the state of Texas will not require all these certifications to become a teacher, or they will increase teacher pay, making it competitive to be hired as a teacher. Lets say the state raises teacher starting pay, for the big districts, to $70,000. I know a lot of professionals who would leave their industry work place to come and teach. It would also compensate all the new teachers who had to pay so much just to be certified. The incentive would be worth the payoff in my opinion.
Conclusion
Parents and Administration need qualified teachers teaching their children and students. The state just needs to get it together and figure it out.
-E
1st Year Texas Teachers 