Who Will Teach Them?

This is the question I must ask myself lately. It is no secret that our state and many others are in financial difficulty. The answer is often to cut spending. This leads many to suggest cutting spending and funding to education. This is what is being done here in South Carolina. My main point today will be the affect this will have on teachers and most importantly the lack of teachers. Teachers in South Carolina have not had a raise in a few years. This is leading to more of them searching for other fields in which to work. Also our teachers are getting older. Many are at or nearing the age of retirement. The problem is that fewer and fewer young people are going into the teaching profession. I myself have seen this in that only 10 years ago band directing jobs were hard to get. Many times young teachers would have to start out at a small, rural school and work their way up. This is not so much the case today as many band directors get a large school straight out of college. The problem is that many don't stick with it and find another profession. The learning curve is sharp and expectations are high for all. Many just don't have time to get better. Now there is talk of required teacher furloughs. This means money out of the teachers pockets and they aren't making too much to begin. Here are a few suggestion to attract more to the teaching profession:

1. Make it like military service and allow retirement at 20 years service. Perhaps don't offer as many benefits unless you continue through to 28 years but allow it.

2. Offer incentives such as financial help to obtain advanced degrees. Some districts already do this by offering classes but more do not have help for all by allowing them to take classes at the unversity of their choice.

3. Reward good teachers so that they will continue in the profession and not just for high standardized test scores.

I don't know if any of these things would really help but something has to be done soon because there will be real problems when nobody wants to be a teacher. What if they build a new school and nobody applies to work in it?