Too Many Teachers, Not Enough Money, 125,000 Positions Cut

by Mike Smith · 2009-11-16 19:13:00 UTC
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Recently, America lacked teachers and many feared that it didn't have enough. But thanks to the economy we aren't going to run out of educators any time soon. America is now experiencing a teacher glut.  It's not just that we trained too many teachers, but also that the economy is causing schools to slash the number of positions, reports the AP. And not just a few positions have been lost, but a whole 125,000. That's half the number of the positions that the Obama administration has claimed to have created and saved through stimulus investment.

Many teachers who planned to retire are staying on to work longer, and many people laid off from other fields are trying their luck as teachers, boosting numbers. One Texas school district reported 5,000 applicants for 322 positions. Only in Math is there a lack of teachers, as demand for teachers in all other 60 subjects has declined. Recently qualified teachers will have begun their training expecting a wide range of schools to pick from on completion of their training, but many in the teaching community are now suggesting that new teachers need to be more flexible about where they're willing to work.

Photo credit: Wonderlane

Mike Smith is associate editor at Change.org.
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