Why Not Teach?

Ernest Alvarado

Charles Parker

English 1

February 16, 2016

Why Not Teach?

Becoming a teacher used to be a very prestigious and rewarding career but now fewer students are pursuing this career choice. There will be a severe shortage of teachers by the year 2020, especially in the fields of mathematics and science. In fact, there has been a 74% reduction in less than ten years in California of students entering into the teaching profession. This reduction will not replace the more than 100,000 teachers expected who are supposed to retire over the next ten years. There are different reasons for the shortage of teachers. One reason is due to the low pay teachers make which are far less than other professions requiring the same amount of education. The average teacher’s salary in California is $49,700 per year, but this doesn’t take into consideration how much of their money they spend for supplies for students out of their pocket. In California, it is now harder for a teacher to make tenure which also detours students in pursuing a teaching career. Adding to the tenure issue is all the reforms such as teaching Common Core, the increased pressure of testing results, and their evaluations based off of these scores have contributed to the shortage of teachers. The increase of violence in the schools has also affected the teaching profession negatively. The increase of violence in schools has risen 1.5 times higher than ten years ago; so many students are now hesitant to work with this type of environment. Lastly, the poor attitude of parents and their lack of support in the classroom has caused a decrease in the number of students pursuing a teaching career. Many parents are too busy to be a part of their child’s education or even lack education themselves to be able to help their child with homework. The shortage of students pursuing teaching careers is because teachers receive little pay, tougher reforms which require highly trained individuals, and lack of parental support.

This past fall, when students returned to school, many classrooms were being led by substitute teachers because of the shortage of qualified teachers to fill these vacant positions. One reason for the shortage of teachers is due to the low pay they receive for the amount of education needed for the position. ”Interest in the profession has declined because the recession layoffs made it unappealing, salaries are not seen as attractive because they were frozen during the recession and teaching conditions deteriorated,” states Claudia Melendez Salinas.(Melendez Salinas) Even though the salary is comparable to other professions, due to the unsteadiness and recent layoffs, students are no longer attracted to the profession. Since the average teacher earns about $49,700 a year, about $6,600 is not seen by the teacher since it goes to paying mandatory retirement and healthcare costs. Also, teachers spend much of their own money to help with supplies needed for the classroom since many of the school budgets do not allow enough money to cover these expenses.

To combat the shortage of teachers, some school districts are now offering signing bonuses to help attract more qualified teachers and holding job fairs and recruitments in other counties or states. Other incentives some districts are offering are things such as vanpools and teaching internships to high school students to help attract more young students into the profession. But with these added incentives, it may not be enough to attract more students to pursue a teaching career. Unless the pay increases to become comparable to other professions, the teacher shortage will worsen yet this is only one reason for the shortage.

In a recent newspaper article, another reason for the lack of interest in the teaching profession has to do with the destruction of tenure, the evaluation of teachers based on the high-stakes testing, and the Common Core requirements. (Strauss) Many teachers have opted for an early retirement because of the stress the poor test scores affecting their evaluations. Many of these current professionals are now warning young adults about entering into the profession which deters them from pursuing this career choice. Strauss reports Nancie Atwell stating,