I’m willing to bet that at least half the people reading this have no idea who’s teaching their math class next year.
As of Fall 2022, reports analyzing state schooling described the onset of a frightful plague for New Jersey education: a “teacher shortage” has supposedly ravaged our districts, abducting qualified educators along its path and leaving an understaffed void in its wake. And this oh-so-mysterious phenomenon isn’t limited to the Garden State. The “shortage” appears to be sweeping education across the nation, forcing public schools into a frenzy of filling old vacancies just as new ones emerge. Everywhere around us, American teachers are disappearing into thin air in a turn of events that no one possibly could have foreseen.
Kidding.
As much as we’d like to rely on numbers, they don’t tell the whole story. To understand how this so-called shortage is manifesting, why it started in the first place, and if it’s happening at all, we have to take a closer look at the context of these concerning reports.
The National Center for Education Statistics reported that for more than two school cycles, American public schools have been struggling to replenish their staff. State officials cite this as a pressing issue–an ugly obstacle that has momentarily tipped the education world on its axis. What appears to be to blame for this hazardous skew? Officials point to the imbalance between their schools’ high demand for educators and the nation’s purportedly low supply of hirees. This distress is justifiable; the reasoning may be less valid.
Let’s look at the case of New Jersey. News outlets fret about a rapid decline in education degrees from 2011 to 2020–and to be fair, a 5,000 to 3,500 drop does seem like cause for alarm. But upon closer inspection, recent years show a steady uptick in teacher preparation program enrollment: about a 13% increase from 2018 to 2022. Additionally, program completion numbers have remained steady for the last three years.
On a nationwide scale, we can find similar discrepancies between reported statistics. These ripples of discordance muddle the once-clear picture of the teacher shortage that is said to afflict our states. The numbers bring into question whether there is a shortage at all. It’s clear that school administrations would like to hire more teachers than they currently have on hand—but if the gap wasn’t created by a technical lack of educators, what’s the real root of the issue?
The answer may be found in some unconventional sources. Firsthand accounts from teachers on TikTok suggest that it is not a shortage of educators that has created a strain on our system, but a shortage of respect. Indeed, journalist Alexandra Robbins opines: “There is a shortage of teaching jobs that adequately… compensate and respect skilled professionals… That’s not a shortage of people.”
Job conditions aren’t the only reported concern. Several educators on social media say that new generations of students are to blame. Substitute teacher @lifewithbelinda laments that “gentle parenting” or “permissive parenting” has encouraged Generation Z and Alpha to avoid taking accountability in recent years. Other teachers corroborate that years of quarantine and pacification-via-iPad have seen diminished home training in younger students. An alleged rise in behavioral issues seems to be deterring some teachers from taking on public education positions. Meanwhile, TikTok users such as @briena criticize teachers who have frequent altercations with “misbehaved” students, claiming that they lack the cultural competency needed to handle such confrontations with grace. Either way, TikTok teachers appear to be fed up with their job environments.
The topic of the United States teacher shortage remains heavily debated. In the midst of this discourse, schools continue the struggle to fill new positions and hold on to the educators they already have. Whatever the reason for its emergence, the shortage–and all reports accompanying it–must be investigated through a critical lens to understand the reality of our crisis.
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