Workers scarce in some crucial, stressful fields
Teaching, policing test even the most dedicated
On Saturday, tens of thousands of students are expected to join March for Our Lives protests following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Many teachers will join them. Among the 17 dead in Parkland was Scott Beigel, a social studies teacher credited with saving student lives. Such actions have led teachers across the country — who may have entered the field simply to share a love of chemistry or history — to grapple with thoughts more like those of police or firefighters: Will I put my life on the line?
“Nobody walks into teaching to martyr themselves,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “But people believe that they protect kids, and that is part and parcel of what we do.” Though she said she hasn’t seen anyone avoid teaching specifically because of shootings, it’s a stressor that makes the job harder.
“Teachers have become first responders for everything in a child’s life,” Weingarten said.
Rowan Langford, 23, will be at the Washington, D. C., march. But she’s not a teacher — she used to be.
Within three weeks of the start of the 2016- 17 school year, Langford said, she was the sole Algebra II instructor at D. C.’ s Ballou High School after another teacher quit.
“I knew that it was going to be hard,” Langford said. “I just wasn’t fully prepared to be thrown into that as much as I was.” The job was stressful, and she faced “chaos” in her classroom.
Just after winter break, Langford put in her two weeks’ notice.
Teachers aren’t alone. Around the USA, jobs considered essential to civil society are struggling to attract new recruits and retain veteran professionals due to high stress, increased public scrutiny and, in some cases, low pay.
❚ Education: More than 40 states face teacher shortages, and 100,000 classrooms are filled with people not qualified to teach their assigned subject, said Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the non- profit, non- partisan Learning Policy Institute.
The number of educators who said their mental health was “not good” for seven or more of the past 30 days rose to 58% in 2017, compared with 34% in 2015, according to an American Federation of Teachers survey.
❚ Local government: About half of mayoral elections from 2000 to 2016 in six states had just one candidate, according to Rice University’s Center for Local Elections in American Politics.
❚ Law enforcement: Police departments around the nation have reported shortages in the past five years. It can take 200 applicants to get 20 good ones, said Chief Jeff Hadley of Chatham County ( Ga.) Police Department. Some aren’t qualified due to felony convictions or drug use. Some flunk polygraph tests. Others don’t complete the background check. The process can take three to six months, which weeds out people who need a job immediately, he said.