Posted on 04/12/2009 6:05:26 PM PDT by Born Conservative
Erin Cummings couldn't find a teaching job in Pennsylvania when she graduated from Penn State University in 2003, so she went to Maryland and taught third grade.
"I knew I always wanted to come back to Pittsburgh. I was born and raised here," said Cummings, who returned to Carlynton School District in 2006 as a long-term substitute before becoming a full-time first-grade teacher.
It took Chris Fox a little longer to return home after landing his first teaching job in Virginia in 1996. He came back in 2006 to take a job in Riverview School District in Oakmont.
"It takes a long time to get a license in Pennsylvania ... and the school districts are more selective," he said. "In Virginia, they said, 'You got a degree in Pennsylvania? You're good.' "
Pennsylvania has become "a supply state" to school districts across the nation in desperate need of teachers like Cummings and Fox. Thousands of graduates from Pennsylvania's 95 teaching colleges and universities every year must leave the state to find their first job. In fact, fewer than half of the state's 15,000 new teachers will find in-state jobs.
"Kids who want to go teach in their home district aren't being realistic. You have to spread your wings a little bit," said Jay Hertzog, dean of the College of Education at Slippery Rock University.
Salary and benefits are a big attraction for Pennsylvania teachers. They are reasons teachers tend to stay here, often working for 30 years or more before retiring.
The average teacher salary in Pennsylvania is about $54,000; Virginia's average teacher salary, for instance, is about $43,000, according to teacherportal.com, a Web site that tracks teacher salaries.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
I dated two teachers from Pennsylvania, one who was teaching in a Loudon Co Va school, the other in Fairfax. They were cute, but it didn’t work out so I swore off dating teachers forever.
There’s more here than meets the eye.
Pennsylvania has one of the most corrupt school board systems in the nation. You get a teacher’s job unless you know simebody or are related to somebody on the school board.
In a state with a lot of unemployment and that has lost a lot of jobs in the coal, textile, and manufacturing areas, a school teacher position is one of the best paying jobs with almost total job security and numerous benefits (health care, days off, tenure).
That’s why a lot of of good teacher candidates have to leave - they can’t break through the politicians’ control of the appointments, so they move on to other states.
Ping
It's discouraging to get your love letters back, with marks in red pen all over them...
Sounds like supply and demand is part of this too.
If these teachers have “connections” with the right people in these school districts, get jobs and stay for 30+ years, there is little turnover in the teaching jobs in those areas.
Plus, many areas of Pennsylvania have seen long term population declines, so they don’t need new teachers due to population growth.
Crap.
Pa. public schools are generally worse than equivalents in most other states.
Pa. teachers are paid much better than most other states.
This is due to Pa. school boards prohibited from replacing teachers when they fail to perform to standards not set by the teachers union and being prohibited from replacing them when their contracts simply expire
How easy is it to obtain an out-of-state teaching certificate? Back in the day, it was not easy...maybe things have changed?
Also, PA teachers have tenure after 2 years. This results in them being essentially “untouchable”, short of molesting a student or committing a felony.
And while there are good teachers in PA, the slackers continue to work, because they are protected by tenure, and the administrators oftentimes just don’t want to deal with the issue.
I think a lot of states have reciprocal agreements, so that it’s easy to get a certificate once you have one in another state.
Good grief.
I grew up in Western Pennsylvania with a girl, we were in Sunday School class together, who couldn’t read aloud at all and didn’t do well with reading comprehension generally. She got a great GPA because she was the best swimmer in the state, got an athletic scholarship to a state school, and of course became a teacher.
She is teaching, last I heard, in Fairfax, Virginia, a posh DC suburb with lots and lots of money for its schools. I always wondered how the heck she managed that... I guess in PA has a reputation for “good teachers” that explains it. Shudder.
My nephew graduates next month with a degree in education. He’s already been offered a job in Maryland. Jobs in PA just aren’t there.
both of my boys go to college in Pennsylvania. I believe that you have to have a 3.0 GPA in college in the state to enter the teaching program. Does this set them out from neighboring states?
That’s not correct. Some of the top-rated public schools in the country are in PA. Note, for example, that people working in Delaware like to live just across the line to get their kids in PA school districts.
There are terrible problems with PA public schools, but those problems are widespread.
True, and the supply exceeds demand.
LOL
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