The United States is currently dealing with an overwhelming teachers shortage.
Which really shouldn't be surprising considering how abusive this system is
toward teachers who are underpaid and undervalued.
But nonetheless, here is what we know so far.
Well, there's no national database giving us a national look at
how many teachers we need in the country.
If we look at a state by state basis,
it's undeniable that there is a huge problem here.
For instance, in a January report,
the Illinois Association of Regional school Superintended found that 88%
of school districts statewide were having problems with teacher shortages.
While 2040 teacher openings were either empty or
filled with less than qualified hires.
And I'll give you more details into that in just a moment because you might be
wondering what does less than qualified mean?
Now, if you move over to Houston in that area, the largest five school districts
are all reporting that between 201,000 teaching positions remain open.
Keep in mind, summer break is nearly over.
Which is super depressing.
I hate that Summer is almost over.
But kids are gonna go back to school, they need these positions filled as soon as
possible or else they're gonna have to take some pretty desperate measures.
Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association,
said that the knee need for teachers in his state is dire.
His association estimates there are at least 8000 teacher vacancies this year,
up from 5000 the year before.
So they were already having a problem and it is further exacerbated this year.
Now, the Nevada State Education Association estimated that roughly
3000 teaching jobs remain unfilled
across the state's 17 school districts as of early August.
And Nevada's Clark County School District is already resorting
to pretty desperate measures.
First off, these are the measures that I actually like and
I wish every school district was focusing on teacher pay to both retain and
attract teachers, and that is what they're doing.
So in hopes of shrinking its roughly 1300 teaching vacancies,
the district has raised the starting teachers salary by $7,000, there you go.
Maybe more, maybe you need to do more.
And is offering a $4000 relocation bonus to new teachers
who move from out of state or more than 100 miles.
In an interview, the Superintendent Jesus Jara said that the district is also
granting employees a retention bonus of up to $5000 for staying in their jobs.
And so paying them more money and
actually making them feel appreciated, I think is the right way to go.
Unfortunately, Clark County is one of the very few school districts who's
doing this.
Other school districts are resorting to larger class sizes,
hiring people who are not qualified to be teachers to teach, and
I'll give you more details on that in just a moment.
But Emma, this is a huge problem, not just for kids and
their education, but for this country's future.
>> Yeah, and I mean teachers are heroes.
I just think that needs to be stated because they are doing this job for
very little pay, they're handling everyone's children and
they're completely taken for granted.
And I want to point out that the reason that they're being targeted in this way,
both as republicans attack them on a variety of issues including,
I think you know, the three headed monster, critical race theory.
Everything they teach is critical race theory and
you're gonna get fired if you teach that.
The don't say gay bills.
Hey, do you have a partner?
Are you a woman that's married to another woman?
Are you a trans teacher?
Well no, you're gonna be weeded out because you're grooming our kids.
And that's literally what's happening in Red States across the country,
spearheaded by Ron DeSantis.
And third was the Covid stuff, for banning masks.
You cannot protect yourself in your classroom.
These boiler plate situations, I should say or
maybe it's just the extreme situations from the past
few years have forced teachers to reevaluate.
I've know of people who have decided I can't do this anymore.
And that's here in New York, where they, you aren't dealing with the CRT and
the don't say gay stuff that's just because of Covid, right?
They're dealing with so much and want to move into other professions and
on top of that, as you say Anna, they're cut, their pay is so pathetically low.
And it's such a disservice for these public servants in this country.
And the reality is that, this is what the right wing wants.
Betsy DeVos came out the other day and said we should eliminate public education
altogether, because this is another, just another tax for them.
This is another tax on the wealthy.
They want to eliminate it and have kids go to charter schools or
private schools where wealthy people can pick and choose.
And they want to sap the public education system them dry.
And so with those three tactics, along with just defunding public education,
which the right has been doing for years.
And democrats have frankly acquiesced to a degree that they shouldn't have,
they have been trying with a multi pronged approach to eliminate public education.
And this is just another indicator that they're more successful right now than
they are not.
>> The only country I've seen with an education model that's been very
successful and has yielded incredible results,
especially when it comes to like test scores and all that, is Finland.
And what Finland did was literally ban private education, they banned it.
>> And what that led to >> Yeah, I know, I'm finished, right?
My grandmother grew up in Finland and
spoke of that public education system incredibly fondly, and it was a shock for
her to come to the United States when it was not that way.
>> Right. >> Sorry to cut you off.
>> No, and thank you for that because it's good to have that testimonial
because it's absolutely true, right?
What you just said is anecdotal, but you don't have to focus on anecdotal evidence.
You could take a look at their education model in Finland, and
you can look at the empirical evidence, you could look at the results.
And Finland was actually struggling with its education system when
they had a two-tiered model, like the one we have here in the United States,
with both public and private options for people and
options is a strong word because let's keep it real.
There's one private school in our neighborhood and it costs,
I'm not kidding $50,000 a year to send your kid there.
It is a grade school, it is not a college,
it is a grade school that charges parents 50 grand a year.
That is the tuition, that doesn't even include books and
everything else that they have to pay on top of it.
So when you do away with private education,
when you ban that, what ends up happening is,
all of the wealthier individuals in the country have no choice but
to ensure that the public education system is top notch.
When you have a two-tiered system,
obviously there's going to be a concerted effort to dismantle the public option.
So all of these wealthy individuals who are super salty about having to pay
a small amount in property taxes, which of course funds public education in most
cases, they don't want to have to pay that.
They want to be able to keep the money for themselves.
They don't wanna pay for some other kid's education, how dare you?
How dare you even ask for that?
That's why you need a universal program like public education,
without a two- tiered system involving a private option.
That of course, wealthy people are gonna want to pour all their resources in,
because that's the way things work.
We've seen it play out here in the United States and
it's to the detriment of our children and this country's future quite honestly.
Now, I want to give you some other examples of what's going on because
there are some responses from other school districts that I think
have been pretty disastrous.
So, Rural School Districts in Texas, for instance,
are switching to four day school weeks,
which is bad because this is the way >> [INAUDIBLE]
>> It is, because it's taking an entire
day out of the week where kids could be learning, and
they're doing it specifically to attract teachers, right?
Well, four day work week, doesn't that sound great?
Florida is asking veterans with no teaching background to teach.
Okay, Arizona is allowing college students to step in and
instruct students even before they get any type of credential or any kind of degree.
Teachers aren't just randoes, who have no credentials,
they are people who are experts, who have been specifically trained to be educators.
And a new state law in Arizona signed by Governor Doug Ducey last month
allows college students to take teaching jobs.
A similar law, which took effect in Florida on July 1, offers K through 12
teaching jobs to military vets who served for at least four years.
The veterans do not need a bachelor's degree, but
must have earned at least 60 college credits.
Okay, While maintaining, wow, a very impressive grade point average of 2.5.
>> Yeah. >> Not impressive.
>> So, >> I'm just keeping it real.
>> Right.
Well, honestly, I should have included this when I spoke about this earlier, but
this is also a way to undercut teachers unions and unions at large, right?
If anybody can be a teacher, if there's a shortage, and
if you make a workplace so hospitable to a large,
to a unionized workforce, then maybe people leave the profession.
And then, hey, we have no choice.
We have no choice but to bring in anybody, other people who will teach our kids.
And that is helpful.
That's the reason that public education is such an important canary in the coal
mine frankly, for right wing influence and fascism across the country.
Because it includes all those things, right?
Educating our youth about their real history, teachers unions, public funding
of institutions, taxation, all of these things that threaten the right wing.
And that's why they've been so aggressive in going after public education.
And frankly, when you hear a libertarian ideal about everyone should go to
a trade school and not have any real education,
just learn how to be a productive widget in the capitalist system.
That's the only thing that you have value for, not history or math or
social science or art.
No, just that, that is another way,
another layer of how they're trying to target these institutions.
>> Such a great point.
I mean, they've been wanting to dismantle teachers unions from the very beginning,
so that certainly has a lot to do with this as well.