It’s a Teacher Glut Glut!
Fresh off the Associated Press story of the teacher shortage morphing into a teacher glut and last week’s EIA Communique’ comes the first stream of what it is sure to be a flood of state and local stories on the phenomenon.
Last Tuesday, the Brunswick News printed a story headlined “Schools see rise in job seekers” with this lede:
The teacher shortage feared by public school systems in Georgia and elsewhere across the nation earlier this decade has gone the way of the dinosaur.
It’s no longer cause for panic in Brunswick and the Golden Isles. Today, in fact, open certified teaching positions fill rather quickly in Glynn County.
The reason is a teacher glut. There are more teachers than there are jobs to be had across the country.
The Kenosha News published “School cutbacks creating teacher glut” last Thursday, reporting anecdotally of several Wisconsin school districts with more teacher applicants than they can handle:
When Bristol School posted its job openings to fill teaching positions in 2nd and 5th grades, the response was overwhelming, according to Administrator Gale Ryzcek.
“We had tons of applicants,” he said. “We probably had 50 to 60 applicants for each,” he said. “There’s applications coming in every month for positions from people throwing feelers out there. We put them on file, but right now we have no openings.”
The next day, the Texas Government Insider ran with “State teacher shortage turns to statewide glut“:
Not too long ago, there was a fear that the teacher shortage would get even larger. Baby Boomers in classrooms were reaching retirement age and private sector salaries were wooing others away from teaching careers. The number of public school teacher openings was expected to grow even larger.
Then came the downturn in the economy. Teaching became one of the more stable career fields. Kids have to go to school and someone has to teach them. Interest in education job fairs increased. Those in education began seeking alternative certifications to broaden the possibility of landing teaching jobs in areas where there are more openings. And the shortage quickly turned into a glut.
The teacher shortage alarmists may ultimately get their wish, because prospective teachers won’t fall for it twice. The next time we need teachers, we may be the ones who are rejected.
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:40
This is an excellent article. The shortage of teaching positions is terrible and I hope it turns around. The children, our future, that will suffer. I work with teachers who need assistance with there job search and have seen a lot of frustration. I do hope it turns around soon.
Sincerely,
Candace Davies
http://resumes-for-teachers.com
November 24th, 2009 at 04:59
There never was an overall teacher shortage and there is currently no overall teacher glut. There are still shortages in some teaching disciplines, just as there always was a glut in some disciplines. There are still shortages in some school districts, just as there are districts that always had many applicants for each opening.
Mike, I know you have maintained there never was a teacher shortage, and in some disciplines and some markets that was always true. But in other disciplines…special education, hard sciences, advanced math, related services…there will almost certainly never be enough applicants for the available jobs.
This has always been a far more nuanced issue that neither you nor the NEA/AFT with their one-size fits all pay schedules have admitted.
November 24th, 2009 at 06:20
I’ve admitted to shortages of math, science and special ed teachers, Rich. In fact, in the midst of an overall glut, there are still shortages in those disciplines. I’ve tried to shoot down those who have been claiming nationwide and statewide teacher shortages and predicting doom in the next decade – for at least a decade.
Now I’m afraid we’ll have real shortages because they were wrong.
November 25th, 2009 at 08:49
This is an interesting article. We hire teachers a lot of times for our camps. More and more of our college students who are camp counselors pursue teaching as a career after getting a taste for it at camp. But as you mentioned, I think the economy has also played a big role – it’s hard to pass up a steady job!
November 30th, 2009 at 00:15
The more that is published about what a myth the “teacher shortage” is the better. I’m sick and tired of having people look at me like I must be a child molester when I tell them I can’t even get an interview for a teaching job, despite 5 yrs experience with good references and an MA. I’m also tired of govt money going towards all these “alternative certification” programs designed to fill these imaginary shortages, plus of course the standard college programs pumping out 10 times more teachers than there are openings.
Aside from the usual disciplines of math, science, spec ed, there has never been a teacher shortage.