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Teaching Profession Opinion

The Coming Tsunami in Hiring Teachers

By AAEE — June 30, 2009 1 min read
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The national newspaper USA Today recently ran an article about the coming tsunami in hiring teachers. I thought this was an interesting article since we are in the middle of a sharp downturn in the economy and there are layoffs in education. Many districts are cutting staff and laying off teachers, so how could this article be correct?

After browsing the article and pausing for a moment of thought I realized that this headline was correct. We will soon, maybe it will take a year or two, have a great need for new teachers. This will be a result of the delay in retirement for those who recently planned to retire but could not because their retirement savings were depleted by the stock market downturn. It will also be caused by the huge need to replace those teachers who were laid off this past year due to the lack of state funding for education.

The bright spot on the horizon of this problem will be the fact that in times of economic distress more people chose teaching as a career. Teaching is seen as more stable and less prone to the ups and downs of the business world. Hopefully this influx of new teachers will offset the outgo of those retiring from the teaching profession.

Bob Maxfield
Director
BYU-Idaho Teacher Career Services

The opinions expressed in Career Corner are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.