Teachers Worried about their Prospects GettingTeaching Jobs

It was in the news a while ago that the Obama government wanted to put American education back on track; and for that to be possible the government felt that teaching jobs needed to pay just as well as any other respected job, . This isn't the first time that society has buzzed self-righteously about rewarding the hard-working teachers who raise society. The last time it happened, large numbers of inspired high school seniors vowed to take to teaching; now that those students are graduates of teaching looking for teaching jobs, they're discovering that all of what they heard was just bluster; not only are teachers less well-compensated now that they were before, they aren't even in demand at those low salaries. Young teachers who came out with hopes of changing society are settling down considering themselves lucky to find work as a substitute teacher with no benefits.

A good part of this stagnant market for teachers comes from the recession. School authorities in most states have cut school budgets and the entire education community across the country, colleges and all, have struck more than 100,000 teaching jobs, and are no longer looking. The recession also makes teachers who already have jobs, take on longer hours, perhaps to compensate for a spouse who was laid off. To add to the problems teaching graduates face, people who are laid off all around, from other jobs, often also think of trying on teaching for size. For teachers, their lives are beginning to resemble everyday scenes from an overpopulated country like India. A school district in Texas that posted a couple of hundred teaching jobs, received applications from thousands of applicants. And people registering for substitute teaching jobs, ballooned to more than a thousand.

If only a few years ago, the news didn't trumpet so much the fact that there was a huge shortage of teachers all over the place. They lamented how teaching didn't pay well enough, and the best and brightest were taking other better paying avenues for their careers. And the school districts really promoted their jobs hard; much in the way the military pushes recruitment in schools, for young talent to be shipped out to Iraq. But that irresponsible reporting should have pointed out how teaching jobs were only on a temporary high. In every subject except math, schools no longer need as many teachers now. There are great teachers everywhere now hoping maybe for a shot at being a substitute teacher at next to no pay. It has gotten so bad that teaching graduates are being advised to be open to moving to rural areas for a job, or to go to teaching children with special needs, or better still, try to teach math. All the makings of a teacher glut in math in a few years.