Battling the teacher shortage

Editorial by Burlington Times-News, February 14, 2016.

Fewer people want to be teachers in North Carolina. It’s not a new development, but one that’s starting to approach troubling proportions. In fact, Alisa Chapman, vice president for academic and university programs with the UNC System, told the Times-News last week that in terms of available teachers “we have approached a crisis level of supply and demand in North Carolina.”

The easiest and most visible reason is salary. But it’s far from the only answer. Chapman herself called factors leading to the shortage “complicated.”

What isn’t complicated is the basic math. Fewer students going into education coupled with the high number of teachers who leave the high-stress profession after the first couple of years mean a dwindling number of teachers when job openings continue to grow.

Chapman said enrollment in undergraduate and graduate education programs — essentially, the teacher-track course at the state’s public colleges — fell by 30 percent since 2010. While the decline slowed for 2014-15, it did continue. The number of teachers coming to North Carolina from other states is also in flux. Many states are experiencing the same kind of shortage. And we can’t ignore that the pipeline of out-of-state teachers is likely discouraged by North Carolina’s low ranking — No. 47 among 50 states — in terms of pay for teachers.

Really, why move to a place where you know the pay is less than it should be? And it’s perhaps driving some teachers to leave North Carolina. The state Department of Public Instruction reports that 1,082 North Carolina teachers took jobs in other states last year, roughly triple the number who moved away in 2010.

For the Alamance-Burlington School System the decline has to be troubling. Thirty-four percent of its teachers come from the UNC system and 21 percent from in-state private schools.

So far the most visible result statewide is a shortage of math, science, special education and middle school teachers. Chapman says that anecdotally she hears from principals that finding elementary school teachers is becoming more difficult.

Solving the problem will take more than state legislators making salaries for teachers a funding priority, although it certainly wouldn’t hurt. This year, with a $450 million surplus in the bank, lawmakers gave a 2 percent raise — but only to beginning teachers. The rest had to content themselves with the $750 one-time-only bonus other state employees got. Leaders in North Carolina can do better.

Along with salary and benefits, though, finding ways to relieve stress in the classroom should also be an objective. Chapman said training young teachers about classroom management, student discipline and time management could improve education overall, and increase the career-span for teachers.

Developing quality teachers and keeping them should be an attainable goal or state and community leaders should explain why not.

http://www.thetimesnews.com/opinion/20160213/editorial-battling-teacher-shortage