Another Take On the Teacher Shortage

[stevenpiziks]

So the Manistee school district is complaining about the teacher shortage. They go on and on about it in this article: https://www.bigrapidsnews.com/news/article/Manistee-County-schools-concerned-by-statewide-17136799.php

But they also have this:

"Ron Stoneman, superintendent of Manistee Area Public Schools, said his district has continuous job postings open all year 'not necessarily because we have immediate vacancies, but we're trying to develop a candidate pool all the time.' "

So the district posts jobs that don't exist and collects applications, getting people's hopes up ("They have an opening in my area! Great! I have a shot") when actually there's no hope at all. Additionally, it takes FOREVER to fill out an application to be a teacher. Schools always demand your resume and then have you fill out an extensive questionnaire that exactly duplicates your resume. Then there's the background check and fingerprinting and other shit that the applicant has to pay for--all for a district that actually HAS NO OPENINGS. They're selfishly putting applicants through this tedious, hope-filled process just so the district can have a pool of applicants.

The Lansing school district does the same thing. Their web site lists more than 60 "openings" for a district of 10,600 students. There's no way a district that size will have that many openings all at once. A closer look shows they have several listings for "middle school teacher." In Michigan, middle school teachers are specialized by subject area, just like high school. You are certified to teacher, say, English for grades 6-12. Or science, 6-12. There's no such thing as a generic "middle school teacher" license. The district is obviously trolling for applicants.

These districts clearly do not respect their employees. I can see why they're feeling the pinch of the shortage. I certainly would never consider working at either place.