If the teacher shortage one day gets so bad that it cripples the education system, what would happen next?

24 comments

1. Continue as normal. The education system is already crippled in other ways.

   Classes would just get bigger and teachers less qualified and our education quality would slip further into the garbage where the republicans want it so they can replace the system with private education for the rich only.

2. More people home school again and more private schools I would wager.

   I woukd also expect remaining teachers wages to go up or else private schools will draw them away.

3. School districts would have to pay teachers more and/or make it a more attractive job.

   That’s the optimistic answer. The pessimistic answer, which unfortunately has already been gradually happening in many localities for decades, is that in the name of “crisis”, districts will lower standards for teachers and will prey on people who don’t understand the systemic issue and just want to “help struggling schools” to bring in non-career teachers who are willing to work in subpar conditions for poor pay.

4. I hope to god they finally disband the teachers unions NEA and AFT. Before anyone comes at me and says, “But the union fights for teachers and pay” yeah sure they say they do that’s why teachers pay hasn’t kept up with inflation for 30 years.
   As for me personally? I’ll probably get together with some friends that have kids the same age as mine and pay for a teacher to teach our kids. I know about 5-6 couples that would gladly throw $1k a month to get their kids for all intents and purposes a private tutor that can adjust education on the fly. I cant think of a teacher that wouldn’t jump at the chance for $60k a year for a classroom size of 6.

5. Robots take over.

6. I would continue doing what we already are…homeschooling our daughter.

7. Roboteacher.

8. Some states require licenses and certifications. My guess is that they would losses them or help people get them. That will help a little bit.
    

   Another option would be paying people more.

9. They’d start paying teachers what they’re worth. That’s what would happen. I don’t wanna hear any other BS about how to keep teachers other than paying them more. I don’t want to sound greedy, or money hungry, but cmon. People are willing to put up with a lot more bullshit if you pay em enough. I wouldn’t deal with your annoying children all day for 50k… gtfo here.

10. Immigration.

    I’d assume at some point Filipinos are just hired on mass

11. Increase class sizes. Double class sizes require about 1/2 the teachers. Add some aids and keep rolling.

    If your kid falls behind you can get them a tutor. Probs some small subsidies for low income folks.

    Can also legislate autism and other severe intellectual disabilities as medical not educational expenses. Push the cost into the healthcare market would save some schools a significant amount they can use for gen-pop education.

    Lots of levers you can pull.

12. I’ve seen a cycle happen in my state. Teacher shortages get seriously out of hand, and then teacher salaries go up drastically. People think teaching looks like a good job and then there’s a teacher surplus. The pay slowly stagnates, the shit teachers have to put up with increases, teachers quit, and there’s a shortage again. Then pay goes up drastically and it starts over. Takes about 10-15 years for a full cycle. We’re due for a pay increase in the next 3-5 years. It’s already started in sone bigger districts.

13. Probably a stronger dependance on self paced online classes. Biggest issue would be the lack of social competence and experience with the new youth. Also having a Phisical in class education being a sign of status.

    The thing is even with out a teacher shortage the American education system is fucked 3 ways till Sunday.

14. [There is no national teacher shortage](https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/08/national-teacher-shortage-turnover-student-enrollment/671214/). Some districts don’t pay their teachers enough and have individual shortages, but mostly the narrative sticks around because everyone stands to benefit from saying that our public schools are failing. Teachers unions and Democrats can fight for more pay. The federal government can argue for more block grants and control. Republicans can say, hey look the government sucks, go put your kid in private school. If there were an actual problem people would allocate more funding. Parents care about school quality and while it’s not always obvious if teachers need to be paid more, overfilled classrooms and untaught classes are a really obvious sign.

15. Wanna fix the teacher shortage? Turn off Fox News, turn off the garbage of right wing talk radio, stop listening to Ron Desantis, stop demonizing our teachers, stop relentlessly attacking them by repeating bullshit talking points you heard from Tucker Carlson about “critical race theory” and actually SUPPORT our teachers.

16. The conservatives will blame the liberals, the liberals will blame the conservatives. Both sides will propose (and maybe pass) a few bit of band-aid legislation. The brain dead followers of both sides will declare MISSION COMPLETE.

    Nothing will actually change. The country will continue it’s slide into the 3rd world country controlled by billionaire oligarchs.

17. More families will try to find ways to afford private school.

    More families will also choose homeschooling. This will be a great thing for some kids and a disaster for others, depending on whether the parents are willing to make the effort to do a good job of homeschooling.

18. Republicans will instantaneously all cream in their shorts.

19. Replace teachers with super-intelligent cyborgs, or if cyborgs haven’t been invented yet, just use people from the neighborhood.

20. It already is.

    The response has been to just lower the standards of getting qualified as a teacher.

21. For as many teachers as there are leaving, there’s just as many in school to become teachers

22. There isn’t a teacher shortage. There’s a wage shortage. The colleagues I had who left education willingly all left for significant pay raises, either in other districts or moved to the private sector. If the pay was higher, many of them would have stayed. Districts that are willing to pay will always have an abundance of high quality teachers to pick from. Unfortunately we will see a widening of the gap between the haves and have nots.

23. Districts will pay more, and It’s already happening. The city next door to my wife’s city/school district is poaching teachers from her district with signing bonuses and higher pay.

24. Kids will probably turn to the Internet to learn.