Why there aren’t enough teachers

If you really want to know why there is a looming teacher shortage, the answers is more than just salaries.

Everyone knows salaries are disturbingly low. Studies showthat teachers across the country make 14 percent less than professionals with similar levels of education. However, the truth is that salaries are only part of the problem. The intangible rewards of teaching are also being stripped away: respect, academic freedom to meet the needs of the children and job security have always been key factors to teacher recruitment and retention.

Ours is a noble profession where wework each day to give each and every child a shot at the American dream of success and prosperity. Now, the constant drumbeat of anti-teacher rhetoric has tarnished the appeal of our profession with no regard of how this constantly undercuts the foundation of our country and our communities. Demonizing the profession discourages qualified, new teachers fromentering our schools. Coupled with the noose of testing, the loss of job security due to a twisted evaluation system, new laws that only allow1-year contracts for new hires, and a salary ceiling that disenfranchises veteran teachers, our Legislature and School Board have created an environment that leads to a teacher shortage.

When will they realize that education workers make up the largest segment of the economy— when you undercut teachers, you affect not just us, but our kids, our neighbors and the small businesses where we shop. Undercutting teachers, undercuts Broward County.

Kalebra Jacobs-Reed, Broward Teachers Union