LogFAQs > #959913950

Zeus posted...

Considering that there's always a glut of educators, I find this claim hard to believe.

Teaching's kind of an awkward field, honestly.

What generally happens is that there IS a glut of teachers... but then a lot of those teachers can't find jobs, which discourages people from following education tracks in school. Which means you eventually wind up with a period of time when there's definitely not enough teachers.

Then schools loosen up requirements, start offering higher salaries, and generally try to attract people to the field. Which results in a new push for education tracks in college, which fills the deficit... but then winds up turning into another glut, which then starts the whole cycle over again.

I know a couple people who tried to get into teaching and basically got fucked because they had the bad luck to be coming out of school at the wrong time. I also know a couple people who fast-tracked directly into teaching because they were lucky enough to hit the job market at the precise time when there was a desperate need.

The problem right now though is that the pandemic, people not wanting to associate in large groups, and vaccine-related issues are making it hard for a LOT of businesses (not just education) to get people in to do the jobs. Because people don't want to risk their health for shit jobs that have shit pay any more (and in some parts of the country, teaching is absolutely a shit job with shit pay).

It's not so much an issue where we live (I know NJ has a ridiculously powerful teachers' union and they get paid pretty close to the top across the board, and I think Connecticut is pretty similar), but there are definitely places where I wouldn't be going in to work if I were a teacher either. Especially if I were an older teacher.
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