To Invest in Kids, Invest in Teachers

Education in California has many issues to deal with. Things like overcrowded classrooms, school buildings in dire need of repair, underfunded federal mandates that eat away at the budget. But the biggest problem facing education in California is the growing teacher shortage.

Our nation will need to hire approximately 2.2 million teachers in the next 10 years--300,000 of them in California alone. It is estimated that 25% of today’s teachers are 55 or older and will retire soon. Half of the new teachers who go into the profession quit within five years.

Why do so few people want to enter and stay in teaching? Here are some reasons:

* Low appreciation and respect. Teachers used to be held in high esteem. Today’s society seems only to know how to criticize, attack and tear down. We have torn down almost all our institutions in the U.S. The military, the government, the postal service, the police, the justice system and our schools are all no good, according to society and the 24-hour mass media.

* Poor training. A prospective teacher must pay to be trained. A student teacher pays full tuition to a university, which sends someone out a few times to observe them. The person they send likely never taught the subject the student teacher is trying to learn to teach. The student teacher is assigned to a school that has little investment in the student teacher’s development. There is not enough incentive for the school and the mentor teacher to do a good job. We need an apprenticeship program for all new teachers, a system in which they are paid while being trained and that prepares them for the difficult career they are attempting to learn.

* Substandard working conditions. Teachers are asked to work in classrooms that leak and have no heat or air-conditioning. Many work in classrooms without telephones or computers. These working conditions would be deemed unacceptable in most other professions.

* Low pay. Teaching has never been and probably never will be a high-paying job.

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Pointing out problems is the easy part. Coming up with solutions is much more difficult. Here are some thoughts:

* Stop criticizing teachers. Wouldn’t it be great if we actually looked for the positives in people and institutions? Poll after poll says job satisfaction and being treated well are as important as money.

* Recruit teachers for urban areas. Inner-city and low-income areas are struggling now and will struggle more in the future if something is not done. I grew up and attended school in a low-income, high-crime area. A program to recruit potential teachers while they are in high school is a place to start. They could be loaned the money to attend a state school. Pay them while they do their student teaching. Forgive 10% of the loan for each year they teach. Lend them money against their salary to buy a home in the district where they teach. We need to be creative if we are going to meet the need for teachers.

* Increase teacher salaries. Higher salaries would attract better teachers.

* Improve the school buildings. Make them nice places with phones, computers, air-conditioning and heaters that work, restrooms that are usable and paint the walls more frequently than every 30 years.

We need to invest in our schools and our children. They are our future and our most important responsibility. We cannot have a world-class education system on a Third World budget.

Teaching is the profession that makes all other professions possible. The most important ingredients in quality schools are quality teachers. Let’s work together to make sure we have quality teaching staffs and quality schools. The quality of our nation depends on it.