032 Teachers MIA? The Where, the Why, and What to Do to Solve the Teacher Shortage.

Don't be surprised if you find someone named "TBA" teaching your child's class. There will apparently be A LOT of TBAs in charge of classes this fall. School districts across the country report record numbers of unfilled positions at the start of this school year. 

My state, California, reports a shortage of 50,000 teachers going into the 2022-23 school year. It's not just teachers either. Madison, Wisconsin, says 199 teacher vacancies along with 124 non-teaching positions. This means districts are also short paraprofessionals, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and custodians. What gives? 

Desperate districts are trying all kinds of things to lure teachers back. Some are giving raises or retention pay. Others are trying four-day weeks or have resigned to hiring uncredentialed people to fill in the gaps. The reasons for the shortage are not surprising. The Pandemic and remote teaching exacerbated teacher burnout, which was already affected by low pay, lack of respect, and workload. 

In today's episode, we discuss in depth the extent of the current shortage and its causes. Then we give some pretty damn good ideas for bringing teachers happily back to the classroom and keeping them there. Someone needs to send this episode to the Department of Ed.  

Also, here are the links to the Key and Peele Teacher Draft video that Sharyn mentions. If you haven't seen it, you should 😂. It's funny as heck but also kind of sad when you really think about it.🙄 And Jen's reference to the Schweddy Balls video can be found here. Oh, and the actor whose name we couldn't think of was Alec Baldwin. I was right! It was the guy who played Trump! 

Listen to the podcast to find out how these two videos fit in.   Again, as always, Thank you for your support. Please leave a comment and rate and review the podcast so that others can find us. Also, I'd like to ask you to share this episode with one friend who you think would enjoy it. That would be such a nice thing to do for us! 

For those of you heading back to class, may your rosters be smaller, your duties few, and your paychecks bigger. Hands in. Three, two, one...Teachers ROCK! Now go get 'em!

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