We Americans are an argumentative bunch. We disagree among ourselves on just about every important issue facing us as a nation.
However, there is one matter about which we are in strong agreement - the importance of public education. We acknowledge that this nation's public education system is a major factor in our history of growth and liberty; we know that we need an educated populace or we are in deep trouble.
We also know that our education system depends entirely, totally, upon its teachers. No matter how good or bad the superintendent is, no matter how liberal or stingy the tax support, no matter anything else: if you don't have teachers, you don't have an education system.
And now we are facing that very possibility. Our schools are in immediate danger of running out of teachers. For years we have heard rumblings about the need for more teachers. Statistics have ominously told us there is a growing teacher shortage. The situation is now accelerating, and it's time everyone concerned got serious about recognizing and dealing with the crisis before it becomes a calamity.
How bad is the shortage? The U.S. Department of Education says the nation will need 2 million new teachers in the next 10 years. The California Department of Education says our state will need 300,000 new teachers during that same 10 years.
What are our chances of getting them? In 1998-99, 17,000 students completed a California teaching credential, but 30 percent of them never taught a day. And what about those who do go into a classroom? Policy Analysis for California Education reported in 2000 that 30 percent of all new teachers quit within three years; 50 percent quit within five years. Even if the universities turn out more than the yearly 17,000 credentialed teachers, the shortage will continue and worsen, as new teachers go through a revolving door - and out. Obviously we can't count on the young people in the college pipeline; they aren't likely to arrive in our classrooms ready to teach - or they will come and leave in a hurry. And 17,000 a year doesn't add up to 300,000 in 10 years.
California so far has met the shortage by issuing emergency permits to partially qualified people who are at least willing to give teaching a try. In 1998-99, California had 32,000 emergency permit teachers; in 1999-2000, the number grew to 40,000; and in 2001-02, there were 50,000 such teachers carrying papers entitling them to teach, though they were not fully qualified.
Certainly something is the matter, or we'd have a normal supply of people wanting to teach our kids, as we have had for our entire history. Barbara Benaamitye and Lisa O'Brien of Chapman University polled 900 teachers who completed their credential program between 1990-91 and 1994-95, and had taught from six to 10 years. Here's what they said were the reasons teachers were leaving:
- Testing
- Increased paperwork
- Student behavior and attitudes
- No parent support
- Unresponsive administration
- Low status of the profession
- Salary considerations
Any surprises here? Not likely. The poll quoted some teachers who made their points strongly:
"Every year I was required to teach more curriculum based on testing."
"All my creative talents seemed to go by the wayside due to the SAT-9 drill-and-kill they wanted me to do."
"There is ... nothing that classroom teachers can decide for themselves anymore except perhaps the seating chart."
"So much paperwork. I had 187 students. I work 10 hours a day, six days a week."
Clearly, if we hope to attract young people to our profession, and if we hope to keep in the classroom those devoted but exhausted ones who have already chosen teaching, we must do something about the problems that are creating the frightening teacher shortage.
In a recent article, I pointed out some of the dangers of California's obsession with testing, and how we must continue to fight for some common sense in evaluating student progress. That's going to take a lot of work from all of us, because the public has been propagandized into believing that somehow those tests are accurate and important. Tests do not teach, and bad tests do not measure learning. We must get that clear message across to the public, and we must insist that those in charge of our education system recognize that we, in the classroom, are better judges of what is needed than they are.
Administration at all levels, as well as the media and the public generally, must recognize that student behavior is a serious issue for almost all of us. The effects of poverty on our students - poor living conditions, insufficient parental attention, lack of health care, and so much more - show up in our crowded classrooms in many ways. Irregular attendance alone is responsible for many of our kids' academic problems. But lack of respect for authority, crude and often violent behavior, and weak support from families that are already carrying too many burdens as they struggle to make a living all create children who become misfits and problems in the classroom. And teachers become exhausted and defeated trying to cope.
Kids everywhere in our hedonistic culture are accustomed to pursuing entertainment and simply change the channel when something fails to amuse them. Fun-seeking kids don't score well on tests, and guess who gets blamed?
There isn't much help from "above," either. Although there is one administrator to every 13.4 teachers in California, our classrooms are crammed with kids. We have the largest class sizes in the country. Money could alleviate that problem, but our state ranks 38th in funding of public schools despite being the richest state in the union. Overcrowded classrooms exacerbate every problem that teachers face. And a plethora of office-bound bureaucrats simply doesn't help.
When the "experts" talk about the costs of education, they overlook the most significant figure: only 50 percent of the cost of a school is the teachers. As Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University reported in October 2002, "California spends about 35 percent of total education dollars on teacher salaries, a very low percentage compared to other states." And that's despite the fact that everyone acknowledges, along with Newsweek (October 2000), that "teachers are the heart of the school, the single most important factor in a student's success."
Running out of teachers means losing the heart of our schools, and we must not let that happen. There are remedies - solutions we have insisted upon for years. Let our work be truly professional: teachers should determine curricula, textbooks and other materials. Teachers should determine what if any full-scale testing must be done. Money must be pumped into the schools to reduce class size from kindergarten to high school. Teachers should receive professional salaries - enough to bring them in and enough to keep them. California must leave its shameful status and get up there with New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut, which spend around $11,000 per student each year, instead of the measly $6,500 we do. Districts must cut back on administrative ratios while improving the teacher-student ratio. And at least 85 percent of all districts' budgets must be spent in the classrooms.
That's an agenda to dream about and to work for. It's also an agenda that could save our schools from losing the heart that keeps them alive. Make no mistake about it: 300,000 CTA teachers can make that agenda a reality.
