Teachers Discover There's No Such Thing As A Recession-Proof Job
By Susie Madrak Sunday Jul 05, 2009 3:00pmThis Wall St. Journal article also says that despite the cutbacks in teaching jobs even for programs like Teach for America, the number of students working toward teaching certifications is rising:
Jacqueline Frommer thought her career path was set when she landed her dream job last summer teaching fourth grade in Pompano Beach, Fla. Last month, she got laid off. Ms. Frommer, 25 years old, said in college she was told teaching was among the steadiest jobs around. Now "there is no job security anymore," she said.
In a sign of how severe the employment downturn is getting, even schoolteachers, an occupation once viewed as recession proof, are feeling the pain.
Education jobs grew steadily in recent years amid rising enrollment and government efforts to reduce class sizes. Now the increase in teaching positions has leveled off as school districts struggle with budget pressures. The demographic bulge caused by children of baby boomers -- the so-called echo boom -- has also begun to wane.
Los Angeles Unified School District laid off 2,500 teachers this spring. Broward County, Fla., Ms. Frommer's district, cut 400 school jobs. Rochester, N.Y., laid off 300 teachers.
Other districts have avoided cuts by negotiating pay reductions and enacting furloughs and hiring freezes. In June, education jobs actually ticked up 0.5% nationally to just under 3.1 million on a seasonally adjusted basis. But the number of education-related jobs has declined in six of the past 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That contrasts with annual growth of about 3% over the past 15 years in the education field. In the past year, education jobs have grown at about half that rate. Most in demand are teachers in math, science and special education. College instructors have also been in high demand.
Many of the layoffs came in June as teachers prepared to say goodbye to their students for summer. Union and state rules require schools to give teachers notice before the end of the school year if their jobs won't be there in the fall.
Heather Clutter, an elementary teacher in Desert Hot Springs, Calif., learned 15 minutes before the end of the last day of school in early June that she was one of 200 teachers being laid off in the area -- just weeks after learning she was pregnant.
"You always think of teaching as a safe profession. Once you get in, you're there, you'll be able to retire," she said. "Not so much right now."
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We need a new economic paradigm to promote the survivability of homo sapiens et al.
S.O.P.
When you come right down to it, it is completely amazing how cheaply our government is sold for.
What a bargain for the billionaires!
For a few pennies on their dollar they are in the drivers seat.
Don't you see what is happening!!
Our elected officials are paid for by this Global Empire which is reaching around the world for complete control of power and wealth..
They had no problems giving 6 plus trillions of our wealth from the treasury to the very criminals which have created this economical disaster and put them in great shape , but have all the problems in the world to take our jobs back overseas and create jobs for the American citizens...
We are not only being illegally spied on , but the actions of our government are being censored to the citizens and they are passing legislature and laws with out our approval and destroying our constitution , freedom , rights and democracy at the same time....
By creating this economical disaster in the last 8 years ,, they are receiving every wish and dream they have been demanding for over the last 50 some years and the unions and Americans have been stopping in their tracks by this complete control over our jobs and economy.. We have been sold out to say the least.
By moving their manufacturing plants overseas they have destroy our union , work force and economical power...
They have stopped all the regulations and restrictions on all pollution standards to the air/land/sea ,, safety regulation of our jobs and food produced, while at the same time have received our money placed on a credit card ,, which is own by China and other countries to help send their manufacturing plants and jobs overseas.
Lets face it when we see what use to be our corporations names on the products which are now being shipped into our country from China , India and other foreign countries we know d... well they are partners with these companies which are producing these products overseas with resources from our nation and the tax welfare giving to then by laws passed by our elected officials like the free trade bill.. Remember Obama while running for the office of presidency stated that was one of his ""CHANGES" that were a coming with his election to office....
Talking about waste of oil and energy ,, what does it cost in energy and money to transport raw material overseas and also ship these products which use to be made in USA back to our country... U.S. corporation has also moved to Mexico while our government has passed laws to run their corporate trucks straight thru our borders destroying again our jobs and economy..
Now they not only have our manufacturing plants in Mexico but use Mexican workers to destroy our union and jobs to transport the products back to our country...
This Global Empire is the organization or group which is destroying our nation and even using the bullets of our own country and our government to help fund and support their destruction... The terrorist of 911 which 15 of the 19 were from SAUDI ARABIA the country which we fought the Gulf war for their protection of oil and the war with Iran to destroy any change of Saddam being in power of any oil so we can steal it from the middle east.
They have stripped every progress in which our workers and citizens have made in the past 100 years in the past 8 plus years and our government has supported it while using our tax money , depleting our 401 retirement accounts to help pay for the transfer of jobs while giving millions more in salaries and bonuses to the very crooks while have deleted our workforce..
When are we going to stand on two feet and do as Kucinich said .... wake up Americans... and fight for our jobs , freedom , democracy and take our country back..
These Global Corporate Empires have more control over us now then Britain have before the revolutionary war.. By the way they ran a series on the revolutionary war and more the other day...
It must begin with vast conservation. It will be noted quickly that this is antithetical to the capitalist exponential growth model.
If we had started thirty years ago it could have been managed without great pain. Too bad it wasn't.
Ronald Reagan intervened and now the die is cast.
For the short term which is all our government is really capable of thinking of, direct employment, a WPA II if you like, would be best.
However it would be wasted effort if we don't initiate an energy and resource sustainable economy.
Unfortunately, there is no indication such thinking is occurring at any level. Certainly not with the travesty of an 'energy' bill that just passed the house and is guaranteed to be even worse from the Senate.
As for the finance sector the same crooks are running the show.
So far all I see is the drive to re-inflate the bubble economy that got us here.
There are more holes in this boat than there are patches.
Reading the books of people whose thinking I really respect on this subject (Kunstler, Chomsky, Gore Vidal), I'm struck by this:
the very conservation efforts necessary to save our jobs (let alone the environment and the survival of the species, because Americans, and maybe humans, generally, seem incapable of conceiving of something that large) would be resisted by those whose jobs might be saved. It would mean changes in lifestyle, both subtle and drastic--how we use energy, how often and far (or if) we drive, what we consume, everything.
Americans would look at this not as an effort to save themselves, but as a program of government-enforced austerity. We won't riot for clean, transparent government, the preservation of our civil liberties, or affordable access to health care. We would be in the streets, I fear, if we were asked to take public transportation, use our washing machines less (and dryers not at all), and turn off our big-screen teevees.
We are the holes in our own boat.
The only really steady work I know of is for nurses.
have cut back on those services already.
she has moved through three jobs in the last year. my cousin lost her hosp adm job because of cutbacks as well. we're in the NorthEast, where the "recession" isn't supposed to be that bad.(snark)
who still has a job, we all live in fear of doing something that will get us fired. I work with a very fine nurse that they are harassing because of her incremental overtime. I know if I was a patient at our facility I would want her taking care of me. They have added layers and layers to our charting and have also implemented dual signing procedures for administering things like insulin and certain drips.
I feel bad for the new nurses coming out now. Jobs really are scarce and you come to work every day wondering if this is the day you are so rushed that you make a mistake that costs you your license.
I stand corrected.
... ever consider a career in the armed forces?
...recession-proof job at the moment.
And it's by design.
Good luck to you when you leave the military, though--assuming you leave in one piece. Well, good luck to you, either way.
there are recession proof jobs
we are in a depression...and there are no depression proof jobs
everyone is getting hit
Bartending, tax agent and mortuary?
Preferably not simultaneously.
And they're hurting, too.
I would say that plumbers have a depression proof job.
I would think that the only job will exist so long as there are humans, regardless of the economic status, would be the grave digger. That's recession proof, because people die all the time.
The rich always need servants.
Plumbers, man, plumbers. That is one job people aren't going to tackle themselves.
Young Teachers need to know that Teachers Unions cannot help them reach tenure.
The current SOP of school districts is to Rent-a-Teacher up to the stage of tenure and harass them into quitting to avoid a bad evaluation. Quitting of course means that you cannot draw unemployment insurance which means the school district avoids stating the reason for the termination. Resigning before being fired does not help the young Teacher however because the next school district will ask if the Teacher resigned to avoid termination (Catch 22?). And you would be ill advised to sue a school distict or Administrator for wrongful termination if you want to continue teaching.
Teachers Unions are not the monolith that the R-W Nutjobs make them out to be.
Young Teachers should not volunteer to pay union dues until tenured. Save your money, you will need it when your rental period expires.
"This Wall St. Journal article also says that despite the cutbacks in teaching jobs even for programs like Teach for America, the number of students working toward teaching certifications is rising..."
I'm sure that the bright people who intend to pour knowledge into empty vessels will come up with a solution to their employment problem. One that doesn't involve holding their breath until they turn blue, or starving themselves.
The Poor Pay For The Sins Of The Rich
By Avi Lewis - June 16th, 2009
Now that Washington has ruled out an immediate bailout for California, we know who will pay the ultimate price for the crisis born on Wall Street: the state’s most vulnerable citizens. And with many states facing similar crises, this could be a preview of where the country as a whole is headed.
http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2009/06/sc...
$515.4 Billion on the U.S. Department of Defense
$145.2 Billion on the Global War on Terror
$44.8 Billion on the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs
$37.6 Billion on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
That's at least $743 BILLION dollars on war-related expenditures, EVERY YEAR.
More that TEN TIMES the $59.2 Billion we spend on Education...
Far less than even the $85 Billion we spent on the BAILOUT OF AIG.
Bamboozled we are…
A couple of points, distressing ones. the $743 billion doesn't include the $106 billion 'war' supplemental OR the ex nihilo and black box programs, the amount of which is anyone's guess.
The AIG '
bailout'heist was $183 billion.It is no longer the 'Global war on terror' - Now it is the 'Overseas Contingency Operation' here in WaPo.
Chris Floyd prefers 'Long Overseas Contingency Operation' or LOCO - here
One place they are hiring is for Obama's classroom spies, Chris Floyd here and David Price at Counterpunch here Son of PRISP - Obama's Classroom Spies
When a corporation, through its own bad decisions and corruption, fails, there is no end to the taxpayer money we'll throw at the problem IMMEDIATELY.
But when education of our children is failing, we'll sit by and do nothing.
I hope that you aren't implying that education is failing because of poor teachers and teaching. Education is BEING FAILED, which is a very different thing. The funding has been strangled off for so long, and NCLB -- with its sanctions of districts failing to make AYP -- is a sham. In my mind this has all been part of a purposeful effort to privatize (Ralph Nader would say that the correct term is "corporatize") education. I am deeply angered to see Obama continue these policies.
I would guess that healthcare will be the cash cow for several years. The baby boomers are going to need more and more health care, and the echo boomers will eventually need more healthcare too. Add that to the fact that we're all fat fucks, and I'd say healthcare jobs would be the new recession-proof jobs.
Ever heard of 'Medical Tourism'? Medicine in this country will go the way of manufacturing before too much longer. At least the 'big' surgeries like bypass, hip replacement, etc. Follow the link.
http://www.healthbase.com/resources/news/late...
If you don't have insurance, out of country medical care is the only way to go.....
The number of children who need a decent education hasn't fallen. The number of people who are ill and need medical care hasn't fallen. The demand for teachers, nurses, doctors, police, fire, all the social service type jobs that keep a country up and running hasn't dropped. The demand is as high as ever, if not higher. It's not even the supply - we have teachers, nurses, doctors, police, firemen. We just need to pay them. Before we pay banks and investment corporations and insurance companies.
I suppose it could have been worse. We could have been stuck with McCain/Palin instead of the alternative we did get. But the actions thus far aren't meeting the big words, the rhetoric of hope is... so far... just rhetoric. Not hope. Hope is fading. Rapidly.
I'm a struggling doctoral student, but I'm lucky enough to be doing my struggling in New Zealand. When Obama was elected, I was asked if after more than two decades of living outside the States if now I would consider going 'home'... and for the first time in all those years, hope stirred in me. Hope had me considering taking my education and my skills back to a country where I could do some good for my own countrymen. Hope almost brought me home.
... Now...?
...Not so much. It's going to be hard, no matter what country any of us live in, for quite some years to come. Bush devastated not only our own country, but dragged the rest of the world down with him. There's nowhere to go that's 'safe'. But at least here in New Zealand, I have a chance at a future, teaching in a university. This country is hurting, like everyone else's, but it's still surviving. I look at the States and see that simple, modest ambition receding further and further away, every day. I don't see a future there, even with Obama.
Mr. Obama - you gave us all hope. It's time to make good on it, because while it's a great word that makes for nice campaign posters, hope is NOT ENOUGH. Yes, we could have had the Republican alternative of absolutely fricking nothing. But you're trying to heal a gaping gunshot wound with a small childsize band-aid. It's more cruel to offer false hope than it would have been to let the country die.
For pity's sake - stop trying to please everyone, and do what has to be done to save this country. Stop bailing out banks and put the money back where it's desperately needed - teachers, nurses, doctors, police, firemen. We need them so much more desperately than we need investment bankers and insurance companies. What good is 5,000 new jobs when 20,000 are lost? Stop trying to cure our terminal economic illness with a couple of aspirin and a lollipop; it's too big, too sick, too fragile to fix with hesitant placebos and half-measures. Stop worrying about bipartisanship, or even the goddamned Dems (who are just about as useless than the Republicans, if only slightly less corrupt), and just concentrate on doing your job. Be our President. Give us more than hope.
Give me a reason to come home.
BTW, as a teacher myself, thanks to all the readers who support their local teachers. Be sure to go to your local school board meeting and get involved: the parents and community that our students live in have a lot of say in what happens, more say than the teachers have.
Unlike you, though, I don't blame Obama for not living up to our expectations, nor do I expect him to solve all the country's and world's ills. As amazing a motivator and speaker as Obama is, he cannot change values overnight, and deep-rooted American values are the problem.
I was just back in the States, and it's obvious that greed and selfishness have won.
The understanding that the collective nature of a society is what binds it together, the shame at OUR failure to protect the most vulnerable, the outrage at letting powerful entities advance their interests at the expense of individual liberties or the public good, the pride in delivering consistently world-class public services and education, the realisation that we all do better when everyone does better, these are values we take for granted in more socialist countries.
I'm afraid to say, the prevailing attitude in the U.S. is, if you can make money from it, it's good, regardless of whether it makes someone else's life miserable. And if you can't make money from it, it's worthless, whether it's a public space or a kid's education.
I still have hope that the U.S. has changed and will continue to. But I've stopped looking for a reason to go home, because such fundamental change takes generations.
"I was just back in the States, and it's obvious that greed and selfishness have won." -bamboozled
It has taken over 30 years to get this way, so it'll take about that long to get back to a better state (we must keep up the pressure). We can't expect an instant fix, but the current economy is accelerating a change in the current mindset.
"You always think of teaching as a safe profession. Once you get in, you're there, you'll be able to retire," she said. "Not so much right now."
I spent my first 5 years (late 80's) of teaching watching everyone with a hire date after mine get riffed at the end of each year -- very unnerving! I always advise new teachers to expect a volatile career for the first 5 to 7 years...and people wonder why 50% leave the profession in the first couple of years.
Nonny -- When I spent time in NZ one "winter" (summer 1992 here) attending a conference put on by University of Wellington, I found that we (the USA) had exported our "market driven" philosophy there and that schools/educators there were already suffering from funding and other education issues as a result. They all had hope that things would turn around soon though...and great health care.
...is still alive and well in New Zealand, no debate there, particularly at university level.
At primary and secondary level, it isn't so much a question of funding (although that IS definitely a factor) in the teacher shortage; it's the massive bureaucratic crap full-time teachers have to put up with. I have a friend who has been a supply teacher (what we call in the States a substitute teacher) who thought she was getting a huge career break when offered a full-time position. She lasted a year, and went back to relief teaching. The amount of hours, unpaid, that she had to spend in dealing with the mountain of paperwork and politically driven bullshit that had nothing to do with teaching meant she was making less money per hour as a full-time teacher, and not doing a hell of a lot of teaching. Relief teachers show up at the beginning of class, teach, go home when it's done, the end. The attrition rate for new teachers is horrific - idealism only lasts so long.
At university level, it's pretty much the same as it's always been, academia with all the endemic political infighting and bureaucrasy is not for the faint-hearted. But New Zealand is a small country with big ambitions, and they do try to recruit the best teachers and students. I'm the first PhD candidate in NZ's academic history going for a doctorate in Creative Writing, Massey being the only university in the country to offer that degree - Massey is eager to prove itself a top class liberal arts university, fighting its reputation as largely an agricultural institute pumping out veterinarians. I suspect that other universities aren't going to be far behind, as like universities everywhere they're competing for students and their tuition money.
But New Zealand universities also get huge subsidies from the government for every doctoral candidate they produce - this is a country with a very high educational level, because the government both wants to produce as many homegrown PhDs as they can as well as attract PhDs to migrate here. It's an uphill battle; the pay in New Zealand across the board in all professions is far less than you'd get in Australia or the States or Britain. And while the cost of living has also been a lot cheaper than elsewhere for many years, that is unfortunately on the rise, squeezing everyone. But this country does have excellent social medical coverage, a highly educated and literate population, a lively cultural scene, an amazingly sensible and user-friendly Immigration service (compared to my experience in the UK) and if you want to live in a place with breathtaking countryside, friendly people, incredible produce and food, a progressive attitude toward the environment, and just about any sort of weather you fancy, there is nowhere better to be.
where did people get the idea that there is such a thing as a safe job? I'm stunned anyone thinks such a thing exists.
When my wife's company consolidated to the East Coast three years ago I attended some of our state's job seeking classes with her. They made us introduce ourselves. There were people back from their stints teaching English in Thailand, Taiwan and Beijing. Never know passing them in the street.
At least the republican's are making sure billionaires don't have to pay taxes!
it's because teachers are unionized.
but i also think that teaching, accounting, lawyering maybe, nursing, anything that you can do with a 4 year degree is gonna start getting hammered just like those jobs that 40 years ago required a high school diploma.
That said, I have to disagree with the person who advises new teachers not to join their union. Instead, do some research into how effective your union is. No, they can't protect you from getting a pink slip if the jobs get cut, but a strong union can protect you from capricious or vengeful administrators as well as ensuring that should jobs open up, you will be in line for them.
I worry that times like these pit veteran teachers against the less-senior newcomers -- and I suspect that is something that some administrators use to their advantage.
We need to work together and demand a REAL economic recovery.
Teaching has NEVER been recession proof. 39 years ago when I graduated with BA and teaching credential, jobs were scarce. I never did use the teaching credential, went into a completely different field.
My daughter graduated with BA and teaching credential in 2004. First year she subbed, second year she had a one year temp position, 3rd, 4th, years she subbed and worked at a bank. Last year she landed a position - it was renewed this year. So, in 5 years this is the 1st time she hasn't had to go job hunting. Her close friend had a 'temporary' gig for 3 years - this year, bad economy, trouble in the housing market, drop in property taxes - no more position; she's looking, but is pretty sure she will be subbing and/or working in her cousin's restaurant next year.
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