Today's Teacher Shortage

The Shortage of Teachers in America

All of the schools in this country are facing a serious problem. Every day more and more teachers are leaving the profession. Why are these teachers leaving? Well the primary reasons are the poor working conditions and low salaries. "Twenty percent of teachers say that unsatisfactory working conditions keep them from wanting to stay in the profession. In addition, thirty-seven percent who do not plan to teach until retirement blame low pay for their decision to quit teaching."

I feel that that this is a very serious issue because the abundance of teachers is requiring classrooms to become too full and chaotic, making it harder for teachers to teach and for children to learn. The children in these classrooms are the future, in ten or twenty years they will be the people running this country. They will be the doctors we go to, the accountants who handle our money. They will be filling important and professional jobs that we will depend on. This is why it is important for today's students to get a good education. This requires professionally trained teachers, and classrooms that are not over crowded.

By 2014, more than 3.9 million teachers will be needed nationwide, because of teacher attrition, retirement and increased student enrollment. This fact means that something needs to be done before it is too late. The government needs step in and either raise the salary or offer some other benefits.

Though this is a big issue it is being overlooked because of bigger and more urgent issues such as Iraq, terrorism and oil. It is because of these bigger issues that the nation has not addressed the abundance of teachers as a problem. And fixing it is being delayed until there is enough time to deal with it. It is true that even if the teaching salary is raised, it will still probably take a couple of years for the number of teachers to increase