Tuesday, October 26, 2010

I'll Believe It When I See It

From today's major Sacramento newspaper:

Even as laid-off teachers scour job ads, education experts say school districts are likely to face a massive teacher shortage when the economy recovers.

Far fewer college graduates are entering teacher credentialing programs even as a wave of teacher retirements is predicted to hit in the next few years.

I've been hearing Chicken Little cry about near-future teacher shortages the entire time I've been a teacher. There may be a wolf this time, but I've been fooled enough times that I'm not going to come running again.

Based on my mixture of stories in the preceding paragraph, we can conclude that Chicken Little's first name is Peter :-)

3 comments:

Pomoprophet said...

My partner works in the school of Ed at one of the UC's. They are facing record enrollment each year. I take CSET's to add areas to my credential and the campus hosting us is always packed. There is not going to be a teacher shortage. I call their bluff too.

W.R. Chandler said...

As usual, they leave out the important part about the shortages only really being in special ed and math. As a Social Science teacher, I can attest to the difficulty of finding a teaching gig even in the best of times. Special Ed can basically name their own ticket.

Naturally, the teachers unions don't allow increased salary for special ed or math, even though there is shortage. Laws of supply and demand must bow before union greed and illogic.

Bill said...

It's a standard strategy to keep wages down. Look at computer science (we need H1B foreign workers!) and Engineers, we're always told about their shortages. This has let industries pay salaries increases that barely qualify as cost of living adjustments, not raises.