Once upon a time there were so many licensed teachers in Minnesota looking for jobs that for every one job opening, there were hundreds upon hundreds of applicants. Now, area schools are having a much harder time filling those positions.
Where have all the teachers gone?
A recent article by the St. Paul Pioneer Press talks about how state legislators are being urged by education experts and teachers unions to do something about the shortage, particularly in areas such as special education.
They want the state to offer financial incentives to those willing to go into special ed; they are lobbying to get more support in the schools in terms of training and mentoring and they want more incentives created to help recruit more college students into the profession. Those are all good and should be executed, but there needs to be even more than that done.
Class sizes are increasing, and for whatever reason, there seems to be more special education students than there were a couple of decades ago. Depression and anxiety has gone through the roof with students of all ages and they are bringing their challenges to teachers, who are then being asked to deal with it.
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Some teachers get a paraprofessional, but not all. There are some teachers who are forced to go it alone with 25-plus students, a third of which have special needs and often times they are doing everything they can to teach the curriculum in a room that is too small for the circumstances. And we wonder why people don't want to be teachers.
The state needs to do more for schools, period. The majority of school districts are forced to watch every penny it spends (and if it has the gumption to want something such as a new school to handle the growing population and aging infrastructure, then it has to beg its citizens, which is something else that should be changed - but that is for another day).
State legislators use education and children as talking points when they are running for office, but once they are elected, most don't put their money where their mouths are. Schools need more teachers, including special education teachers, to spread out the work load so the job isn't so overwhelming day in and day out.
They need more mental health professionals and they need many more paraprofessionals so that all teachers have another adult in the room. Funding for universal Pre-K is a relatively popular idea, but how about we make sure we have the resources to give our teachers and students what they need first before we skip off to the next idea?
This editorial was originally published in the Detroit Lakes Tribune, which is owned by Forum Communications Co.
