<p>I thought there was supposed to be a "shortage" once the baby boomers started retiring. Not seeing it yet!</p>
<p>All too many boomers can’t afford to retire.</p>
<p>definitely not here in California!</p>
<p>As long as baby boomers aren’t retiring and the budget situation is so bad in CA, I can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.</p>
<p>Don’t just blame them. Also blame the system, considering all of the cutbacks that have been made.</p>
<p>The “teacher shortage” is a myth that has been perpetutated for the past twenty years. Not going to happen.</p>
<p>We had a teacher shortage between ten and twenty years ago. Our school system then experienced reduced enrollment numbers and that wave has gone almost completely through all of the grades. We are reducing the number of teachers because of declining enrollment. This may be different in your area.</p>
<p>In NYC, the shortage was about 7 years ago. Teachers are currently w/o a contract that probably will not be negotiated until ~ 2014. Perhaps then so people will retire. Currently retirement is 25/55. However, for many people they are still into paying for kids to attend college or are just finishing up paying for college and have to again start funding their retirement making retirement not a viable option at this time.</p>
<p>Arne Duncan claims a million teachers will retire in the next few years. He is delusional, I think.</p>
<p>Most systems in GA not only aren’t having teachers retire, but they are increasing class size, so fewer teachers are needed, so most “openings” aren’t really filled.</p>
<p>I believe that there are openings in some of the oil rich states where growth is still occurring.</p>
<p>Agree with all of the above. In Pennsylvania, thousands of education majors graduate certified and ready to teach every year only to find that school districts are cutting back/consolidating positions/hiring aides or subs that have been working in the system for a few years.</p>
<p>Due to our lovely state governor’s new policies many teachers have decided to retire to be assured of retirement benefits they were expecting. However, school districts are not replacing all of them as the money is tight. Net loss of teaching positions, larger class sizes threatened, fewer resource teachers et al. We need to raise taxes to balance our budget (the/we rich can afford it). Recall election pending…</p>
<p>Our state allows teachers to retire, then they can be rehired.
However last year a loophole was closed so that retired teachers can only work part time, not full time.
We don’t have a teacher shortage, but it enables districts to keep master teachers, like the internationally acclaimed jazz band director at my younger daughters high school, a little while longer.</p>
<p>I wonder if the national push to tie teacher evaluations to student test scores will result in increased retirement or decreased tenure.<br>
I also wonder if we are going to have increased evaluations of principals or other administrators?</p>
<p>Well, this is discouraging! I would guess that many new graduates eventually find work in other fields and never end up in the classroom.</p>
<p>As emeraldkity4 can likely attest, there has been quite a flap over Teach For America positions supplanting recent graduates who went through conventional BA or BS plus MIT programs. The question asked was, “If there are more trained teaching graduates than jobs, why reserve spots for graduates who do not have the education credentials?”</p>
<p>It is discouraging, but I am forging ahead with getting my teaching credentials just the same. I just hope that there is an opening for a high school English teacher when I am ready!</p>
<p>I just hope that there is an opening for a high school English teacher when I am ready!</p>
<p>Can you coach Ultimate?</p>
<p>Ditto, pugmad - except in my case, I’m hoping that someone needs a chemistry teacher!</p>
<p>Juniebug, Just noticed that your location is PA. Are you inquiring for your child or yourself? If your child is at a PA college then she will come out good to go. If she’s OOS, and wants to teach here in PA, I would strongly recommend that she take all of the PA praxis tests she needs ASAP.</p>
<p>This is NOT the time to pursue a teaching credential in California! Class sizes are increasing every year. Veteran teachers are holding on for a few more years. Salaries remain frozen to 2010 levels, no step increases, 9 furlough days. In my large district anyone with 8 or less years of teaching is pink slipped every March. It is very demoralizing. Special Ed credentialed folks seem to be in the best situation employment wise, but it is not for everyone.</p>
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<p>This is actually how my father wound up becoming a teacher as a second career. Due to some unfortunate circumstances he was no longer able to do the job he had done for over 25 years, and took up a new career mostly working from home. He got into the system as a substitute teacher to earn a few extra bucks on days he knew would be slow, and became very well liked by the administration at one of the schools where he was a sub. A few years later they hired him for their engineering technology program. They helped him get his teaching credentials and everything since due to “emergency shortages” he could be employed full time as a teacher for a few years without being certified.</p>
<p>With the NCLB there is a very strong emphasis to have every teacher certified. In my school district most aides and subs are certified and ready to step into a full time position. My daughter was hired in PA with the emergency certification but she had taken the PA praxis tests and was certified in another state. Even with the Principal and Superintendents push it took a few months to get certified and if she had not gotten that she would have lost her job. If you have a teacher that is not fully credentialed (in my district anyway) they have to send out a letter to every family that has that teacher. Schools do NOT want to do that!</p>