The South Dakota Teacher Shortage crisis? Well, it’s not just us.

You know that Blue Ribbon Task force charged with finding ways to raise teacher pay, and in turn, allowing us to hire more teachers due to a shortage?

The New York Times has an interesting article this morning regarding the teacher shortage. And it’s not just us. It’s a nationwide trend:

Across the country, districts are struggling with shortages of teachers, particularly in math, science and special education — a result of the layoffs of the recession years combined with an improving economy in which fewer people are training to be teachers.

At the same time, a growing number of English-language learners are entering public schools, yet it is increasingly difficult to find bilingual teachers. So schools are looking for applicants everywhere they can — whether out of state or out of country — and wooing candidates earlier and quicker.

Some are even asking prospective teachers to train on the job, hiring novices still studying for their teaching credentials, with little, if any, classroom experience.

Louisville, Ky.; Nashville; Oklahoma City; and Providence, R.I., are among the large urban school districts having trouble finding teachers, according to the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents large urban districts. Just one month before the opening of classes, Charlotte, N.C., was desperately trying to fill 200 vacancies.

Read it all here.

Interesting. The story cites that the teacher shortage is “a result of the layoffs of the recession years combined with an improving economy in which fewer people are training to be teachers.”  That doesn’t alleviate the shortage, but it flies in the face of what some would have you believe about South Dakota.

What’s your take on it?

21 thoughts on “The South Dakota Teacher Shortage crisis? Well, it’s not just us.”

  1. Even more of a reason to increase teacher pay in SD. Neighboring states will be doing even more to recruit teachers. With wages at their current level, how can we even expect SD to compete?

  2. I don’t think it is simply the pay. When I attended school, teachers were given respect, had authority in their classrooms (and no, I don’t mean beating students), and were allowed to teach without worrying about saying something politically incorrect, and on and on. Maybe the problem isn’t the pay, it’s what we have allowed the teaching profession to become via the “don’t hurt the kid’s self-esteem” and “don’t touch a student for fear of being sued,” mantras.

    1. I would agree that is a big part of it. Teaching is a tough job. You have to make sure children learn, help them to become better people and also satisfy parents and your boss. Not easy tasks when you are dealing with 25-30 kids who just want to be kids. Often if kids get bad grades parents blame the teacher rather than putting in extra time with the kids to help them clear the hurdle.

      I feel for teachers. There has to be accountability for parents as well as teachers. I’m ok with paying teachers more but I also wonder if it’s not time we go to a full year schedule for teachers. They really shouldn’t be expected to find a part time job in the summer when most likely they could help teach kids who were struggling during the school year.

    2. I think if we took that penny sales tax or whatever funding means and placed it all into a voluntary month-long paid teacher institute that it would solve a lot of our problems. The first few years of teaching can be brutal, and our districts do not have the resources to help teachers become better teachers and deal with discipline and academic issues. Our teacher shortage both locally and nationally does not just stem from inadequate recruitment, but we also lose many teachers during the first five years of being in the profession. Providing the professional development opportunities required to improve teaching would go a long ways toward dealing with our teacher shortage through better retention rates.

  3. Many things we can do but people afraid of change.
    Union must accept merit pay and school consolidations.
    Charter schools.
    Vouchers.
    Pay to play extracurricular.
    Sales tax for salaries.
    Student loan repayment by hiring district.
    Reduced tuition for ed majors.

    1. There is not a union in South Dakota. SDEA comprises less than 10% of South Dakota teachers, if you don’t count those that belong to a local teachers’ bargaining group.

    2. get rid of paved streets, gravel roads are just fine and what’s wrong with outhouses? Save money on worrying about indoor plumbing

    3. I disagree with charter schools totally. Charter schools only destroy public schools. Charter schools select the brightest and the best, leaving the rest in the public schools. The poor, disabled, and most disadvantaged would be left in the public schools. The condition and quality of public schools would drastically decline creating even higher numbers of high school dropouts roaming the streets and causing trouble.

      1. balderdash and poppycock. the charter school, done correctly and specifically, would be established to serve a unique purpose that couldn’t be achieved through matriculation in the general population. to reject them completely and out of hand in such a broad-brush manner, as if they would cause higher dropout rates and more crime, is not logical.

      2. “Charter schools select the brightest and the best, leaving the rest in the public schools. ”

        Your argument then is this: Public schools need the successes of the “brightest & best” to offset the instructional failures of the poor, disabled, & disadvantaged!

        IF public schools are educating every child (as we’re told by educators), what difference would it make if the brightest & best left?

        There are charter schools teaching the poor, disabled, and most disadvantaged–they’re called Catholic schools.

      3. “The condition and quality of public schools would drastically decline creating even higher numbers of high school dropouts roaming the streets and causing trouble.”

        1. Poor quality schools do not create trouble-makers. Poor character creates troublemakers.
        2. I for one will not be blackmailed into supporting schools with the threat of the [false] alternative of “creating” troublemakers/criminals.

  4. No doubt this is becoming a national problem, but when you are the bottom of the list for paying teachers, guess what happens? You become the last to most likely find replacement teachers, too.

    Not to mention, when there is a shortage of math, social science, and english teachers in your own state, it does not help when your own Governor has recently knocked a liberal arts education.

    1. ” it does not help when your own Governor has recently knocked a liberal arts education.”

      He did no such thing.

    2. “No doubt this is becoming a national problem, but when you are the bottom of the list for paying teachers, guess what happens”

      What happens? You get students who perform well on standardized tests and most other measures of educational achievement.

  5. I’ve got a great idea. Let’s solve South Dakota’s issues first before we worry about MN, ND, IA, NE, WY, CO, and MT and the rest of the country are doing. We’ve waited long enough and tried the same solutions over the past few years. Why not choose a new path and break new ground in our own backyard?

  6. Hey, I know, how about starting video lottery and use the funds for education! Just thinking outside the box. You’re welcome.

  7. Springer you covered a large part of the problem above. We hero worship sports figures and have entire sections of newspapers covering them as if their scores will affect our lives. The music and Hollywood industries promote their stars as well they should. But a chemist, physician or engineer, etc. will come up with a life changing solution to a technology, health or energy issue affecting us all and a little blurb appears in a science or health periodical. Sure the Einsteins, Salks, Flemings, Jobs, Nobels, Gates etc. get patents and wealthy while we enjoy their inventions but someone, probably a teacher, inspired every one of them to greatness. And we don’t do a good enough job of getting those unsung heroes up on the Marquee nationwide. South Dakota’s double blow is our base salary dissolution. Nationwide it is a culture problem. Here it is culture and salary.

  8. And Hillary Clinton can go smoke more crack. It doesn’t take a Village to raise a child; it takes a Family.

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