It seems the news just gets worse and worse. Pennsylvania and New Jersey, beset by budget woes and with constitutions that require balanced budgets, were counting on more federal money in a recent appropriation bills. Unfortunately that got shot down, so suddenly both states are faced with even more serious budget shortfalls. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities predicts that shortfalls in tax revenues will continue into 2011, especially without the Federal relief, and this tax shortfall will represent 30% of states' budgets.
When it comes to education, and especially teaching opportunities, everything seems to be up in the air. I'm off to Las Vegas this week to find out what has happened with my application. (I'm also going to check it out. I've never been there.) I was told my application would be processed three weeks after it went in for review. It went in for review on April 3o. It's a bit overdue. I know that Clark County Schools is bogged down in moving principals (the locals are not happy,) eliminating 12 month programs and the union has accepted a contract that freezes salaries in the first year in order to avoid as many lay offs as possible. I will be stopping in the district office to find out if they have lost my application. I suspect that the district may be dragging it's feet: I am licensed specifically for Autism. I was informed I was in a high need area, and they cannot place a non-certified teacher in the classroom. But . . . (they did this in Ann Arbor, Michigan) they can put a substitute teacher in classroom until they "find" qualified teachers. Back in the late 90's I heard from a lot of people (I was subbing in Ann Arbor then) that the district was leaving unqualified substitutes in classrooms to save money--people with degrees in business teaching home economics or special education.
Certainly, we haven't seen the end of the sorts of sleight of hand and manipulation of facts and figures that creative administrators and legislators reluctant to find revenue will pull. Our most disabled students, those with multiple handicaps, kids on the autistic spectrum, will pay. Unqualified and inexperienced teachers will probably reinforce problem behavior, frustrate students with inappropriate materials and generally set them all back. Or babysit.
On the other hand, it means deferred dreams for people who have worked hard to complete their degrees, taken their state qualifying tests, their subject Praxis and are anxiously awaiting the end of the deferment for their student loans. It's going to be a long summer, and any hiring that happens may be right before the school year begins. So hang on to your hats!
Comments
Jerry:
It’s not ONLY this year. Not necessarily due to budget cuts…but how is one really to know when local districts readily dispense automatic form letters of non-renewal containing no particular reason? Coupled with building level administrative politics (am I sounding negative and rather disheartened only 2 sentences in to my draft?), at least in my endeavor to obtain tenure, a given school district has not appeared to be too particularly interested in developing their potential faculty. Conversely, and unfortunately, I have on several occasions witnessed a district’s purported “desperate need” to enter into a contract, say, perhaps within a few days of the beginning of the school year for some strange reason, to only 10 months (or 22) later being shown the door.
Is it out of line to want or even expect to be granted tenure? In the grand scheme of things, it may appear to be rather insignificant to some, possibly even moot with the changes in teacher evaluation that lie on the horizon; however, the anxiety that at least I have endured wondering if I will be employed the following year weighs heavily on my passion to continue as an educator.