Why is there a teacher shortage this year? What’s causing record teacher dissatisfaction?
As schools open for sessions, teachers want change to improve their conditions for themselves and their students. Columbus teachers go on strike.
Before the pandemiTeachers have had enough and some are going on stirikec, teachers strikes across the country had won gains in terms of conditions and pay.
Researchers Joshua Bleiberg and Matthew A. Kraft have been actively following the numbers and project a decrease in K-12 employment by 9.3 percent comapred to the begining fo the pandmeic. Many others, are making their voices heard in other ways.
There is some evidence that the scope of the crisis may be being overblown and that while these rates are above average most children will not be effected. Though this does not mean that teachers are content. A poll by the American Teachers Foundation tracked a seventy-four percent dissatisfaction rate with their profession, up from forty-one percent last year.
What is causing the dissatisfaction?
Some of the most cited reasons for the deterioration of conditions in the classroom in the included “Workload, more responsibilities, unrealistic expectations,” “Student attitude, apathy, discipline, behavioral issues, truancy,” and “Pay, lack of compensation, not keeping up with inflation.”
These conditions have worsened in recent years as teachers have dealt with balancing online and hybrid models. Now, as students return to the classroom, the CDC has released new guidance that do not protect teachers with students not required quarantine if they test positive for covid. Additionally, even before the pandemic, many districts were trying to cut costs by increasing class sizes.
Columbus teachers on stike as the school year is scheduled to begin
The poor conditions in education sector were so bad in Columbus City Schools that teachers voted to strike. With school scheduled to start on Wednesday the teachers are hoping the district will return to the negotiating which they left in late July.
This is the first strike for the union since 1975, and the ballot which asked members to evaluate the district’s offer was rejected by ninety-four percent of voters. The district had said that this was their “last, best and final offer.”