Substitute crisis

I am a member of the “gig” economy who few people think about: a substitute teacher.

I want to talk about a crisis in Pennsylvania education: the substitute crisis. I have been both a classroom teacher and a substitute teacher and have lived in three states. I have occupied both sides of this dynamic and viewed it from different locations.

Substitute teachers are important because teachers are losing planning time to cover classes. Planning time is where the heavy lifting is done to prepare lessons and grade. It keeps teachers from burning out.

Having classroom teachers cover other teachers’ classes creates instability. This affects children of poverty the worst. This instability gets even worse when a school is unable to cover classes. Each uncovered class is split into pieces, so students can be moved to other classrooms for supervision.

What motivates substitutes? There are only two reasons to substitute teach: pay and the opportunity to become a classroom teacher. The opportunities to become a classroom teacher in Pennsylvania are few and far between. Pennsylvania has a plethora of teaching programs cranking out teachers. Competition kills this incentive.

In Pennsylvania, the most money that a day-to-day substitute can make is $120 per day. I made that much in Colorado in 2006. I maintain my career path at great expense to my family. My wife, fortunately, works in the health care field. Even so, we struggle to buy groceries and pay bills.

I recognize that budgets are an obstacle, but the only solution to the substitute crisis is to raise the rate of pay. I sympathize with administrators in our local districts. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place. That said, there is only one way to solve this problem.

ERIC PETER RAMBERG

Etna