Schools hiring falls short

Finding enough teachers to fill positions has become a major problem the last couple of years for many years. Administrators are puzzled as to why this is happening. A Sacremento school still has not filled two dozen positions, leaving these students to be taught by unqualified substitutes. In a way this going against Bush's No Child Left Behind Act because students are being deprived essential information. Although the district is blaming this problem on an excessive amount of students being enrolled, this does not give a reason not to have positions filled when the school year is almost at the half way point. Lets face it teachers are underpaid for what they do. This may be the case in some areas, but as a whole we must look at what this is doing to the students. I remember when we had substitutes and boy it was a fun. However, these instances only occured rarely. For this Sacremento school substitutes are having to be rotated becasue they are exceeding their limits in the classroom. Teachers at this school are worried for they have seen many visible consequences. Poor student behavior, busy work assigned to occupy time, students correcting substitutes' academic mistakes are all deterriorating the classroom environment. The school system is asking many parents if they have any suggestions as to what they can do to fix this problem. Well it is simple. When hiring, don't always wait to the last minute. Districts should be offering more job fairs earlier in the year so if faced with a dilemna as this they will have something to fall back on. Even if they use these potential employees as substitutes until a position comes along. they will have the credentials in teaching these students. They will not be "baby sat" as to what Larry Tagg, a teacher at this school refers to these subs as.