"Teacher Shortage" is a misnomer. The shortage is in the pay and benefits that districts offer to teachers

[1srelluc]

If the teacher job fairs were filled to the brim and teachers who have jobs were bitching about the pay, while quickly signing their new contracts every year, you'd have a point.

That used to happen but now it doesn't. Teachers are voting with their feet that the compensation is inadequate for what they are now asked to do.

RELATED: Task force created to find out how to keep teachers in classrooms
Here's a breakdown of all five of the area's largest districts:

• HISD: 880
• CFISD: 472
• Fort Bend ISD: 275
• Aldine ISD: 409
• Katy ISD: 200

Here are all the teacher vacancies at Houston-area school districts

Districts are dealing with shortages among school bus drivers in addition to teachers.

www.khou.com

Pay barely goes up year-to-year, which is fine when we don't have a federal government that insists on inflating the money and at the same time raising taxes on the middle class. But now a 3% pay increase amounts to a pay cut, and the easiest way to get a pay raise is to go work in a field that pays more.

 

[Seymour Flops]

Exactly.

If you don't care if they leave, stop stressing out about it.

 

[1srelluc]

Exactly.

If you don't care if they leave, stop stressing out about it.

I "stress" about my property tax bill, as we all should.....That's just it, half the crotch fruit I'm paying out the ass for don't even have a parent that pays property tax.....Then we get fucked again due to all the breaks they get.

 

[Seymour Flops]

I "stress" about my property tax bill, as we all should.....That's just it, half the crotch fruit I'm paying out the ass for don't even have a parent that pays property tax.....Then we get fucked again due to all the breaks they get.

Sure, sure. Those are good points, but have nothing to do with my thread refuting the idea that there is a "teacher shortage."

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

I "stress" about my property tax bill, as we all should.....That's just it, half the crotch fruit I'm paying out the ass for don't even have a parent that pays property tax.....Then we get fucked again due to all the breaks they get.

Why don't you tell the class why that is a lie?

 

[WinterBorn]

Honestly, I don’t believe we should have a mandatory public school system. I am a strong believer in local PRIVATE schools that parents can choose to pay for, or in homeschooling.

I find most teachers I know are in that field for absolutely the worst reasons. Few want to truly educate kids. Even fewer have the skill set to do so. I find most school sydtemd absolutely void of anything even closely resembling a useful curriculum and educational theory.

I would not send any child of mine (if I had any) to ANY public school in this country.

I think you know few teachers. The ones I know are among the most dedicated and skilled people I know.

 

[gipper]

I’m going to quote my parents (both teachers): “You don’t get into teaching to make lots of money. It’s a calling, not a profession. If you’re getting into tesching for the money, you’re in the wrong field.”

We have $54 billion for Ukraine and government spends trillions on all sorts of stupid shit, but we can’t pay teachers appropriately.

What a country!

 

[initforme]

Typical attitude in america....you go and work hard and and for the lowest wage we can pay you. Backwards and regressive.

 

[Anathema]

We have $54 billion for Ukraine and government spends trillions on all sorts of stupid shit, but we can’t pay teachers appropriately

We shouldn’t be spending Federal money on EITHER Ukraine or Education. Neither appear in the Enumerated Powers Clause of the US Constitution (Article I, Section 8)

 

[gipper]

We shouldn’t be spending Federal money on EITHER Ukraine or Education. Neither appear in the Enumerated Powers Clause of the US Constitution (Article I, Section 8)

True, but you’re much too late for that.

 

[Anathema]

True, but you’re much too late for that

If that is so then this country has no legitimacy left and needs to be burned to the ground.

 

[Polishprince]

It's simple economics. I almost posted this in that section.

If workers are NOT willing to work for you, it's because you don't offer enough compensation.

This is, quite simply , a load of shit when it comes to teaching.


When I was in school, the nuns and brothers that taught us received next to nothing in compensation, yet did a better job than the highly paid Government school teachers.

Teaching is really a vocation, not a job that people pursue to make a bundle at.

 

[Blues Man]

Teaching is an important occupation that should be decently compensated.

I think it is.

The problem is we are asking schools and teachers to do more than just teach kids.

There has been all kinds of mission creep

 

[gipper]

If that is so then this country has no legitimacy left and needs to be burned to the ground.

Something has to change, or the nation will be brought down.

 

[Anathema]

Something has to change, or the nation will be brought down

MANY things need to change. Unfortunately, in this day and age of “Progress” what we really need to do is to revert to the way things were in the past. That’s a tough sell to large percentages of today’s population.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

This is, quite simply , a load of shit when it comes to teaching.


When I was in school, the nuns and brothers that taught us received next to nothing in compensation, yet did a better job than the highly paid Government school teachers.

Teaching is really a vocation, not a job that people pursue to make a bundle at.

Teachers don't want a bundle. They just want to make enough money for the job conditions.

 

[Seymour Flops]

This is, quite simply , a load of shit when it comes to teaching.


When I was in school, the nuns and brothers that taught us received next to nothing in compensation, yet did a better job than the highly paid Government school teachers.

Your nuns and your brothers had the option to expel students who misbehave, refuse admission to students who don't speak English, and to isolate or reject outright, students with disabilities.

Teaching is really a vocation, not a job that people pursue to make a bundle at.

Yes, teachers should enjoy the privilege of teaching your wonderful children and not stress about how much compensation they get. Maybe we should require all public school teachers to take vows of poverty similar to the ones taken by your nuns and brothers. Should they also take vows of chastity, so as not to ever be distracted from their vocations?

Teachers are professionals, like doctors, and lawyers. We all have a code of ethics and we are expected to serve our clients to benefit them. Why would teachers, alone in that group, be expected to accept whatever compensation is offered?

 

[Polishprince]

Your nuns and your brothers had the option to expel students who misbehave, refuse admission to students who don't speak English, and to isolate or reject outright, students with disabilities.

That's just bullshit. My aunt, my mum's oldest sister, didn't know any English at all when she entered 1st Grade and that's how she initially picked it up. Plenty of non-English speaking kids were educated by nuns.

 

[Seymour Flops]

That's just bullshit. My aunt, my mum's oldest sister, didn't know any English at all when she entered 1st Grade and that's how she initially picked it up. Plenty of non-English speaking kids were educated by nuns.

They had the option, though. They could also segregate the non-English speakers.

You seem to be deliberately avoiding the point of the thread. There are teachers who are looking for other professions, for one reason: The compensation no longer is worth the demands of the job.

Is your solution to tell them that their reward is to serve the local school board, the way nuns and brothers serve the Catholic Church?

There is no doubt that, currently, private schools get far better results on average than public schools. That's why we need vouchers. Until we have them, your option is to increase teacher compensation, or accept that there will be far fewer teachers teaching public school students.

 

[Unkotare]

It's simple economics. I almost posted this in that section.

If workers are NOT willing to work for you, it's because you don't offer enough compensation.

In the last two school years, the demands of teaching have gone through the roof, starting with the Fall of 2020, during which teachers were typically required to teach virtually with zero lowering of expectations for the quality of their teaching. Then we had a combination of live and virtual teaching, with the same teachers doing both simultaneously and families given the choice of sending their kids in or having them "learn online."

Teachers were not given the work-from-home option, and we were required to wear masks at all times, and enforce mask wear for students. District set policy and we followed it or we quit. It didn't matter if we thought that COVID precautions were being over-done, or not done enough. One of the teachers at my school, in her late thirties, with a pre-existing condition, died of COVID after weeks of being face down on a respirator. She literally died to teach the kids.

Now the state has changed its standardized test in ways that will be even more stressful for teachers. More about that on another thread.

All this was part of the job. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying how it was and continues to be. I'm saying that if you hire a guy to build a pool for you, and then decide that you absolutely need a high dive and a hot tub also, you don't get to pay the same and say "don't complain, that's part of your job." You want more, you pay more.

If not, don't be surprised if fewer people want to work for you.

At least half a dozen teachers at my school died during Covid.