Analysis: The Hundred-Year Teacher Shortage

… there are tens of thousands of applicants seeking positions in the schools who have neither the personal nor professional qualifications to train children. To admit such teachers … is a crime against the childhood of the nation. It must not be tolerated. The false cry that there is no teacher shortage must not go unchallenged.

… The public will gladly pay the bills when it appreciates the gain from reasonable investment in good schools.

… Some districts are responding with stop-gap measures, like allowing more unprepared educators to enter the classroom by lowering the standards required to become a teacher. This is a short-term fix with long-term problems: if teachers are hired without having been fully prepared, the much higher turnover rates that result are costly in terms of both dollars spent on the replacement process and decreases in student achievement in high-turnover schools.
Instead, long-term solutions are needed to keep educators in the profession by improving working conditions, increasing preparation and mentoring, and providing adequate resources that will enable them to do their jobs.

“We have to stop acting like we can solve this problem without resources,” [NEA Vice President Becky] Pringle said.