State Teacher Shortage

Re “The New Import: Teachers,” Aug. 10: So there is a “teacher shortage” in California. That must be why I can’t buy myself a teaching job. I am a fully credentialed teacher who has completed student teaching in a California middle school and worked in two districts as a substitute. I have a master’s degree and language capabilities beyond English. Teaching would be my second career, after more than 25 years as a newspaper and magazine writer and editor.

I suspect the reasons for my underemployment are rooted in one simple fact: The district-established pay scales for “highly qualified” teachers like me are higher than those for unqualified, sometimes foreign, emergency-waiver recruits.

Judith Backover

Carmichael, Calif.