There are fewer students and more teachers in Illinois today than a decade ago, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. Teachers unions push the shortage myth to gain power.
Students and teachers are back in school across Illinois, but teachers unions keep claiming there are not enough teachers to run classrooms.
That’s wrong. State data proves it.
Teachers’ unions have perpetuated the teacher shortage myth. The Illinois Education Association claimed Aug. 28, 2022, the “teacher and education employee shortage [is] getting worse.”
But according to data from the Illinois State Board of Education, there are fewer students and more teachers in Illinois today compared to a decade ago.
More HERE
First of all, I am a public school teacher in a downstate small school. I am also a die hard conservative. In my opinion both narratives are incorrect. I agree with the Illinois Policy piece that the Teacher unions are using this to gain more “influence”, but there is a teacher shortage. Certain subjects don’t have shortages, for example I am a history teacher. There are tons of us! But our school has trouble finding special ed, pre-school, English, and music teachers. This last year our chorus teacher had to do double duty and teach band for 2 years until we could find a band teacher. (yes, we only have one, we are a small school) We have a full time sub for pre-school for first semester until a college kid graduates in December and can take over because we could not find any. I can keep going. I agree with the Illinois Policy article that Amendment 1 is bad. It really is. But to say that the teacher shortage is being used to pass the amendment, well it is, but there really is a teacher shortage. And for you that say, why is the data showing smaller class sizes. With out looking at all the data, I would have to say that state laws require us to have certain teachers for certain things. For example, several small schools in the area have 1 autistic student. They have to hire 1 full time teacher for that kid by law. Was that a law 10 years ago?
Thanks! I apologize for any grammar errors – I did say I was a history teacher!
I left the working world at age 24 to study history in college. When I received my degree, there were no history teaching jobs available.
I was told “No one wants to know that stuff, we teach ‘social studies’ NOW!”
“Social Studies” is History LIGHT, it’s a worthless, useless indoctrination course.
Fortunately, I also had a business degree, so back into the “working world” I went.