sir_eccles

I know we often say, why would a school district go to the expense of hiring a foreign teacher? Well perhaps because they have thousands of vacancies? The article is a little light on the visa details as usual.

Arizona teacher shortage forces schools to go international

Hotscot

That's interesting..I wonder if unemployed teachers in the rest of the USA are aware of this?

sir_eccles

Well, as the article says there are apparently tens of thousands of certified teachers in AZ not teaching. Salary no doubt a big factor.

Hotscot

That also surprises me...
I believe the starting salary @ Los Angeles is only about $40,000.
Wouldn't $30,000 go a long way in Arizona for a starting teacher? I'm not clear what alternatives those who trained to be teachers would have.

sir_eccles

30k isn't that much where ever you are in the country. Obviously circumstances are a factor too, but if you have a family, car payments, rent, student loans, food. Someone in the comments of that article said they were one of the not working teachers because he was earning twice as much doing software stuff.

Hotscot

But often a newly qualified teacher isn't qualified to do much else.
Maybe they don't have a great number of newly qualified teachers in Arizona.

Even qualified and experienced teachers don't have much of an avenue to change careers easily.

Bob

Seems these days, most teachers need a masters too....that's a lot of debt before you start your career...

scrubbedexpat091

We have more teachers then we need here. No jobs for new teachers, and very difficult to get a job let alone a full-time teaching job.

Average teacher salary ranges from a low of 45,000 for new teachers up to around 75,000 for senior teachers with seniority.

(40,000 to 64,000 in US dollars)


Teaching is a very lucrative career in Canada when compared to the general population's salaries.

sir_eccles

Received some info sounds like j-1 with hrr.

AmerLisa

We actually have a need for teachers in our district as well. There are other districts close by that need teachers too.

CountryM1ke

Hi, new here and very interested in this prospect. Any ideas where one might start inquiries as a UK teacher (PGCE, QTS, BA & MA) looking to make the move to the States?

Many thanks,

Mike

Bob

HRR huh? So they don't want the teachers sticking around for long then...

HumphreyC

The number of certified teachers vs the number actually teaching 95,000 to 52,000 sounds high - but 46% of all new teachers in the United States leave the profession within five years. Plus you have the baby boomers retiring at the moment which means there is quite a lot of staff churn. Arizona also has one of the weakest teachers unions so I can't imagine its great teaching down there. It's a difficult profession even with the unions being able to negotiate pay and benefits.

judesM

Our vicinity often has a shortage of teachers in High School Maths and Science. I notice in the article that's what AZ appears to have a shortage in also. When I asked our school district why this is I was told that math and science majors can make more money in other careers without the added stress of 'babysitting'. (I'm in upstate NY.) Our state requires a Masters degree to teach any grade.

judesM

You couldn't pay me enough to teach high school! ugh!