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Bella Ueda: Wanted: Occupational Teachers


Bella Ueda
Professor Hitt
POLS304
18 Sept 2019
Wanted: Occupational Teachers

            The shortage of occupational teachers in the US is characterized by state-to-state position vacancies, data from state and school districts, educators own personal experience, and a decrease in individuals enrolling in teacher preparation programs (Garcia & Weiss). This shortage began after the mortgage/financial crisis of 2008 and nearly 12 years later, is still painstakingly evident. Motivating individuals to work in certain labor sectors is difficult in and of itself, let alone jobs within government which cannot offer the greater monetary incentives that businesses can. Thus, and most unfortunately, the simple solution of raising annual income for teachers, isn’t actually that simple.

            In the Congressional budgetary process, subcommittees propose appropriation bills, or rather requests, to the Appropriation Committee. From there, that wider committee then presents a cumulative budget made up of those bills to both chambers of Congress that eventually gets finalized after reconciliation (Adler, E. Scott et al.). Additionally, the money designated for public education through the budget comes in the form of block grants. A block grant is federal funding given to state legislature for a general purpose or program. However, block grants are tricky because they don’t require certain requirements or key indicators to be met by those receiving the money. Therefore, the allocation of that money is at the discretion of the state and ultimately, varies widely nation-wide. As a result, states can then also choose not to use those block grants exclusively for schools. The 2008 Great Recession sparked the cutting of school funding in most states and “in 2015…29 states were still providing less total school funding per student than they were in 2008.” (Leachman et al.). Due to this practice and fundamental outline of federalism through grants, we see that money given to states for public education may not even reach the school, let alone teachers’ salary contracts. Evidently, it is becoming increasingly difficult to increase teachers wages and thus, create occupational incentive in this field of labor.
            Supplementary, representation within Congress also comes to play in the shortage of teachers. As of 2016, 77% of the teaching workforce were women (Fast Facts: Teacher Trends). Because of this, it is imperative that there is greater representation of women in Congress­–who are able to prioritize these education-based occupations on a national platform. The 116th Congress elected a record amount of women: 112 out of 535. Yes, this is improvement, yet women only make up roughly 21% of the entire Congressional parameter. With general population of the US split almost exactly down the middle between men and women, Congressional representation lacks the same demographics of its constituents. Additionally and statistically speaking, women in Congress are extremely effective in getting legislation passed (Zhou) . Hence, more money allocated to teachers’ salaries could be linked to the number of women in Congress, thus giving way to yet again another big picture issue that must be addressed–how to incentive more women to run for office in a male dominated profession. Ultimately, the shortage of teachers is the result of a multitude of factors, including social and tax-revenue based. Due to federalism and the basic processes of our Constitution, addressing single-dimensional problems requires unilateral compliance nationally; the teaching shortage needs to breach Congressional stipulation in order to incentivize the labor market as a whole.
















Works Cited


Adler, E. Scott, et al. The United States Congress. W.W. Norton & Company, 2019.

Garcia, Emma, and Elaine Weiss. The Teacher Shortage Is Real, Large and Growing, and Worse than We Thought. Economic Policy Institute, 2019, The Teacher Shortage Is Real, Large and Growing, and Worse than We Thought, https://www.epi.org/publication/the-teacher-shortage-is-real-large-and-growing-and-worse-than-we-thought-the-first-report-in-the-perfect-storm-in-the-teacher-labor-market-series/.
Grants.gov. “What Is a Block Grant?” Grants.gov Community Blog, 5 Sept. 2017, https://blog.grants.gov/2016/06/15/what-is-a-block-grant/.
Leachman, Michael, et al. “A Punishing Decade for School Funding.” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 28 Feb. 2018, https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/a-punishing-decade-for-school-funding.
“The NCES Fast Facts Tool Provides Quick Answers to Many Education Questions (National Center for Education Statistics).” National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a Part of the U.S. Department of Education, https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=28.
Zhou, Li. “It's Official: a Record-Breaking Number of Women Have Won Seats in Congress.” Vox, Vox, 7 Nov. 2018, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/7/18024742/midterm-results-record-women-win.


Comments

  1. Megan KingSeptember 24, 2019 at 2:43 PM

    Megan King

    I think your article does bring up some interesting points on the relationship between the lack of teachers and the money that is allowed, through Congress, to the budget of school districts. I think in our society, being a teacher is not a "glorious" job because of the pay until you get the a higher level of education however; the job is seen as lower on the chain and thus less people want to become teachers. This can even be tied to voting age because if more people could know and vote on whats happening with budget and policies in their school district I think there would be different outcomes. Women are more likely to become teachers which like men being in Congress, both are social norms, but I think you bringing up the idea of more women being in Congress changing the norms of Congress being just a male profession.

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