Is Pay The Main Factor Of the Teacher Shortage?
Despite the ongoing trend of unemployment across America, there tends to be overwhelming numbers of open vacancies for teachers across the country - resulting in many commentators crying fears of a teacher shortage which could cripple our educational system. Many people are scratching their heads wondering why this could be the case, however there are some people who believe that the reason for this is because of the low pay for high work which is expected of many of the educators in the country. It is believed that even though many educators find the job exceptionally rewarding, they sometimes believed that they are not being compensated enough for the effort which they make.
Now - there are strong beliefs that a solution to filling the gap is to answer the critics by making the profession more financially rewarding. However, with the country trying to cover the deficit - how is this even possible? Many experts see this move as an investment which the country will be able to recoup in taxes and other income streams when the children of today become the employable workers of tomorrow.
Even though some of these ideas are not widespread, there are a fair few accepted methods of boosting pay for teachers - even though some of these methods are perceived to have drawbacks.
One of the main suggestions is quite obvious: a rise in the minimum pay levels of teachers around the country. However, with the overwhelming levels of teachers in the country, the costs of this could be astronomical and there could be arguments that educators who work in a less intensive environment could be compensated unfairly when brought into contrast with their more overworked counterparts.
In order to satisfy this argument, there could also be the suggestion of bonuses for those who perform well. But there have also been calls that this is a flawed environment which could make a sector once regarded as a vocation rather toxic. Also, there are concerns that such a system could be difficult to justify - as it would mean that there would be additional pressure for managerial roles to determine which of the educators on their pay roll are performing the best.
Alternatively, promotion into higher roles through the use of contractual agreements such as a teacher tenure document could prove to be useful. But there are criticisms that this will not be effective at all, particularly because of how there would be even more of a teacher shortage as some educators advance on to more challenging roles, leaving their previous positions vacant in this time of difficulty.
There are conflicting views on what the best way is to address such a shortage. For teachers at the moment, there certainly is competition for positions - with even international slots available should people want to teach children in completely new surroundings. The recession has meant that the financial circumstances are more difficult than ever before for consumers, and teachers are finding that their pay packets can be rather restricting at times.