“Over the past few years, the congresswoman has been alarmed by stories of schools shortening weeks, canceling classes, increasing class sizes, and placing underprepared substitutes in teaching roles because of the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing teacher shortages. While there isn’t a single database tracking teacher shortages, one report estimates the nation had around 36,500 teacher vacancies at the start of this school year.” Why don’t more people want to become teachers? Well, it’s a really tough job with really low pay. Can a bill introduced in Congress change that? Teachers Would Make at Least $60K Under New Federal Bill. (I used to teach high school in Brooklyn, and that amount of money would barely cover my ongoing therapy bills associated with my 6th period class.)

+ “The United States has one of the highest teacher turnover ratios in the industrialized world. Almost 50% of teachers leave before their fifth year teaching—an astonishing statistic. This turnover means that schools constantly lose great educators, especially in the schools with the highest need. In any company, any government office—any endeavor of any kind—this kind of turnover would be seen as utterly untenable. The institutional knowledge base goes out the window. Any kind of stability or momentum is impossible. But we’ve allowed this chaos in the US education system, in large part because politicians, district officials, state administrators and voters as a whole have determined that among all of society’s pillars—city planners, firefighters, sanitation workers, water-safety officials, on and on—that among them all, teachers should be paid the least. It beggars belief.” The most excellent Dave Eggers: A Note About the American Teacher Act.