Why are teachers getting laid off?

Answer 1

Because of budget cuts... the local school board will decide a school's budget and if they are over their given budget then they will cut staff jobs (including teachers) and cut extracurricular activities.

Answer 2

There are a-million-and-one reasons for this, however, there is no way to go into this completely here and I do not profess to know all the reasons. However...... there were many teaching jobs available at one time even though they did not pay well. There were no layoffs and teachers had the summer off. Today the number of teacher needed has shrunk due to smaller families and the overall economy. However, there was a time, not too long ago, when classes were overflowing with students. These students had parents who looked forward to sending their kids to college. Community colleges sprang up all over the country. More students were college bound than ever before. Technology ruled. If you did not have a technical backround with computer knowledge you were "dead".

Most college students go to college with no idea as to what they want to do for the rest of their life as new sublects emerge as they are sudying. It is more common for them to change their major and to take a second major before they graduate. Very few go to college with the intention of taking a low paying job like teaching. Most often students could not even get a job in their major. They became teachers and tutors without a class.

When jobs are tough to come by (as they are currently) students turned to teaching as a last resort. There is an expression going around in the colleges that goes, "If you can't get a job in your major... teach it." This means our kids were not getting teachers who wanted to teach. They were getting taught by people who did not want to be there. People were hired to teach even if they did not have a degree in the subject they were teaching and were really not too excited about their job to make a career of it. Teacher's aids and "part timers" were hired to teach and most of them did not even have a degree. School departments did not have a budget that allowed hiring teachers who were BOARD CERTIFIED as teachers. Science and math were the two subjects that were the most difficult to find properly trained people who WANTED to teach.

The most valuable asset this country has, our children, were not being properly trained and prepared for the subjects they would have to know when they went looking for employment in the emerging highly technical subjects. Calculators did the math, consequently, it was thought by many, math was not important. Math required students to think and apply logic to solve problems of all kinds. Parents could not help the students with homework due to the fact the parents did not know enough math or science to assist. The preeminence of our society in math and science gradually slipped away. Children no longer read. They watch TV as bystanders who were passive and did not participate in what was going on. They participated in playing TV games with friends instead of engaging in the usual sports that children used to play. Schools dropped their music and gym requirements to save money.

Eventually, teachers who were under trained for their jobs recognized they were at a disadvantage to other well trained applicants for teaching jobs. By forming a national union they acquired strength. They were able to fight the idea of rating teachers for raises on the basis of improvement of their students from one year to another when compared to other students in the same grade. Many of their reasons were valid but they were ready to go on strike and cripple the system in stead of improving the system by going to classes and taking tests to demonstrate they were keeping up with the material they were teaching.

Today there are many teachers who were laid off due to financial constraints on a system that was not prepared for the economic situation we are in. This is probably the real reason for so many unemployed "teachers". They were not as well qualified as others in a market for teachers that is shrinking. Older ones have "seniority" and will not be laid off. The system will improve but very slowly. Those who were trained and/or laid off and are waitressing or working at a gas station prefer to say they are teachers rather than waitresses or pumping gas because they believe society thinks the work they do is not as important as teaching. They are right.