<p>What are your feelings about the future of teaching jobs in NYC? There will be major cuts in the number of teachers, but will they be older, less productive teachers that will be let go and will that open it up for new teachers right out of school?</p>
<p>How about new graduate special education teachers?</p>
<p>Public school teachers everywhere are unionized, so when staffing cuts are made, it’s the newer, non-tenured teachers who are let go first. Seniority, not performance, is the criterion for retention. If you are tenured and laid off because of a decline in enrollment, the district has to call you back first before offering your job to a new person in the event of a recovery. I live in next-door NJ and we have many recent graduates with teaching credentials who cannot get jobs. It is very rough right now to start a career as a teacher if you are living in a state with budget problems (and who isn’t?). That said, I’ve heard that teachers with endorsements in special education and ESL are more marketable than, say, English or History teachers, or regular elementary school teachers.</p>
<p>My daughter will be starting her graduate education in middle school special education in the fall. She has a great resume and transcript, but the sad fact is that there are no jobs for teachers in NYC and won’t be any in the foreseeable future. As I told her, DON’T DO IT. Her bachelor’s is in history and she has a good non-teaching job that she can parlay into something sustainable going forward, but she dreams of teaching in an inner-city middle school (she’s been a fellow there for several years). But she knows that she won’t get a teaching job. Catholic schools are closing everywhere and there are three or so years of new graduates who haven’t been emplyed yet. There is probably a 20,000 person surplus right now in NYC></p>
<p>If you bring some special skills to the table, it might be a little better. A friend’s daughter graduated from Stanford with a degree in Spanish while being on one of their top varsity teams, did the Peace Corps for 2 years, learning an indigenous South American language along the way, came back and went to Vandy for an Ed Masters, and was hired very quickly by an inner-city school in Denver. I hear she’s doing fabulously, and apparently the Peace Corp and language skills were highly valued. </p>
<p>I have several other friends whose kids with ed credentials from highly respected schools still don’t have regular teaching positions two years later. YMMV.</p>
<p>Re: special ed- do speech pathology instead- you can work in a school, nursing home, hospital, rehab center, or do contract work for a home health company. Special Ed limits you to children- speech gives you the whole range of children-stroke victims-elderly. Many more employment options.</p>
<p>Odd, I just answered the same question on a different thread. </p>
<p>The City is going to lay off about 5,000 teachers. While some of those will find other careers and never look back, some will try to get back in the system if times improve. They have experience and will probably be hired before newbies. I really, really wouldn’t count on getting a teacher job in NYC.</p>
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Not true in Texas- we don’t have the same type of unions…</p>
<p>School districts get by cheap with Teach for America recruits. In academic terms, the program is an absolute failure. But cheap labor is hard to find. And they would leave at just such a time as a regular teacher’s salary would get bumped up. </p>
<p>You could teach in a charter school for half price. Again, an academic nightmare (not single one of the top 20 public schools in Chicago is a charter, despite cherrypicking their students), but a nice way to get cheap labor.</p>
<p>My nieces’s friend who got her teaching degree from HC a couple of years ago, teaches in New York, but at a private school (very expensive) She doesn’t get paid as much as her friends that teach at public schools, but does make quite a bit tutoring. One family my niece said paid her 100.00 an hour on average for her time!</p>
<p>She wanted the benefits from a public school, but for now, the experience is great and she said she loves her class and support.</p>
<p>GA doesn’t have unions either. Arne Duncan is convinced that in the next decade or so there will be tremendous demand for teachers.</p>
<p>“In the next five years, we could lose a third of our Baby Boomer veteran teachers and principals to retirement and attrition. Up to one million new teaching positions will be filled by new teachers.”</p>
<p>However, in our area, teachers aren’t retiring anymore because their retirement funds have taken a big hit.</p>
<p>In addition, class sizes keep increasing and I understand the birth rate is decreasing so demand will be down because of both.</p>