Arizona Teacher Shortage PDF

Preview

Summary

ou will assume the role of a public administrator to complete this assignment. Choose an administrator role; some examples are below:

Police Chief
Finance Officer
Urban Planner
City Manager
FBI Director
As the public administrator, in the role you choose, i...

Description

ARIZONA TEACHER SHORTAGE

SUMMARY: Arizona is 25% below the national average in teacher salary and because of this Arizona schools are having a hard time recruiting and retaining teachers. Because of the low pay, this is one of the biggest reasons as why Arizona has a high teacher shortage and preventing students to succeed in the classroom. Arizona needs to develop and approve a solution to fixing the teacher shortage crisis in the state. Arizona has made the job untenable because they expect teachers to do it all, there are 174 competencies arrayed under 10 professional teaching standards adopted by the Arizona Board of Education (Basile, 2018).

(Lobosco, 2018)

SOULTIONS: Below are 3 possible solutions to solve the problem of Arizona’s teacher shortage: 1.

2.

3.

Arizona needs to lessen the workload of the teachers. When you go to a hospital you don’t have one person doing all the work for you. You have a team that each is trained and specialized in their field. Schools need to implement this better. “We ask teachers to be content experts and pedagogical rock stars, to access children with learning disabilities and manage classrooms of teenagers, to teach reading and math to dual-language learners and provide differentiated experiences to advanced students, and to be role models and social workers who also need to teach” (Basile, 2018). It’s insane to expect teachers to do everything, no other sector expects a similar degree of uniformity from the workforce. In this solution we would have students be served by a team not just relying on one person, we need provide the right expert at the right time, provide more students with the kind of personalized expertise and support they need (Aragon ,2016). This with make stackable certificates to provide pathways in addition to traditional degrees. Schools need to design jobs around the services learners require (Hunting, 2017). Arizona needs to also approve a 1.5% sales tax for education. This sales tax would permanently extend Prop 301 and add 1.5 billion in annual funding for education (Ballantyne, 2017). Prop 301 is set to expire in 2021 and with that the pay for teachers would go back down or stay stagnate and we again would have a bigger teacher shortage then we already see now because schools would be out of money to increase pay for teachers. This sales tax will make prop 301 permanent. Legalizing weed in Arizona would also help fund teacher pay raises. Legalizing weed would generate an estimated $150 million (Staahl, 2018). The 20% teacher raises cost $650 million, this 150 million would help generate a portion of the money needed for the teacher raises. This money in a continuing income for the state every year, it could help funding without having to raise taxes as high or cutting budgeting for something else.

(Goldstein, 2018)

(Irish, 2016)

IMPLICATIONS AND BENEFITS The benefits of fixing the teacher shortage is that it would allow the students to succeed in the classroom better. Having more than 20% of the new teachers in the state not even qualified for their position isn’t acceptable for the classroom (Cano, 2018), this is why we are 50th in country for education. We expect too much for our teachers and don’t pay them enough for the jobs and hours they have to put in. Having a solution to fix the teacher shortage and pay teachers better would allow teachers to stay in the profession for a lifetime, not have to quit and change careers after 3 years.

CONCLUSION: In conclusion, a decrease in teacher shortage for the state of Arizona would help our education and our future for the state. We need to have stable, educated teachers in the classroom to teach students who are there to help the community and watch kids succeed. Right now, we are having anyone who wants to be a teacher teach. Finding a solution to increase pay for teachers and give them less responsibilities so they can focus on the classroom would allow teachers to stay in the profession for a lifetime and not be forced to change careers.

SOURCES:

Aragon, S. (2016). Teachers Shortages: What We Know. Education Commission of the States. Retrieved from https://www.ecs.org/wp-content/uploads/Teacher-Shortages-What-We-Know.pdf. Ballantyne, R., Brewer, M., Francis, P., & Whiteman, J. (2017, June 09). Business leaders: Why we're pushing a 1.5 cent education sales tax. Retrieved from https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2017/06/09/business-education-salestax/376062001/

Basile, C. G. (2018, January 19). Your Turn: Higher pay alone won't solve Arizona's teacher shortage. Retrieved from https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2018/01/19/solvearizona-teacher-shortage-isnt-pay/1037234001/ Cano, R. (2018, August 22). Thousands of untrained teachers are leading Arizona's public-school classrooms. Retrieved from https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizonaeducation/2018/08/22/arizona-teacher-shortage-thousands-public-schoolsuntrained/1043860002/ Goldstein, D. (2018, May 02). Teacher Pay Is So Low in Some U.S. School Districts That They're Recruiting Overseas. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/us/arizona-teachersphilippines.html Hunting, D. (2017). Finding & Keeping Educators for Arizona's Classrooms. ASU Morrison Institute for Public Policy. Retrieved from https://morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/sites/default/files/content/products/AZ TEACHERS REPORT 2017_0.pdf. IRISH, L. (2016, August 02). AZ EDUCATION ISSUES TO WATCH THIS SCHOOL YEAR. Retrieved from https://azednews.com/az-education-issues-to-watch-this-school-year/ Lobosco, K. (2018, April 20). Why a 20% raise isn't enough for Arizona teachers. Retrieved from https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/20/pf/arizona-teacher-pay/index.html Staahl, D. (2018, April 21). Lawmakers pitch recreational marijuana as a way to help fund Arizona teacher pay raises. Retrieved from https://www.azfamily.com/news/lawmakers-pitchrecreational-marijuana-as-a-way-to-help-fund/article_071213ac-be64-5e12-b2f5ed9c68e2a9b4.html...