Column 49 for August 6, 2000

It seems like summer school has just ended and it’s time for the new 2000-2001 school year to begin. I’ve got to tell you that the students I had the opportunity to teach this summer were the best ever! For whatever reason they found themselves in summer school, they studied hard, behaved well, and accomplished in 8 weeks what takes 36 weeks during the regular school year. My hat is off to them!

In the July 29^th on-line version of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, there was an interesting article by Jennifer Brett, titled "Last Hour hires of teachers sought." Norm Barchi, Fulton County’s director of secondary personnel was quoted as saying, "We’ve noticed teacher shortages the last two or three years. This year the shortage has really been pronounced." Fulton County has more than 200 teaching positions open with just a couple weeks before classes begin. Greg Stillions, principal of McIntosh High School in Peachtree City said, "It’s going to get hard for everybody."

Why am I not surprised? Hey people, it’s a sellers market out there. Georgia’s growth, combined with class size restrictions, are demanding thousands of new teachers. What if math, science, and foreign language teachers were allowed the same open market pricing opportunities as the gasoline companies? What would your school system have to pay for a new math teacher? Somehow in Georgia education, the law of supply and demand is un-American.

The days of giving away trinkets, such as baskets of candy, pens, and key chains, as was done at the recent TeachGeorgia Job Fair just aren’t going to get it anymore. New and transferring teachers are a little more sophisticated than that, don’t you think? Our fine governor has made the teacher-recruiting job even more difficult by taking away the last vestige of any job security for teachers by eliminating the fair dismissal laws. What is the opposite of "fair dismissal?" You got it – unfair dismissal! I think Barnes has once again shot himself in the foot.

Even though there have been many improvements over the last several years in the situation for our teachers, (mostly thanks to former governors Harris and Miller) Georgia still doesn’t stack up well nationwide as far as salaries, benefit packages, and job security go. Teachers with the ability to relocate would be best advised to look elsewhere. You can’t get far anymore by saying, "well, hey, look at over at Mississippi."

We’re in a basically open market economy. You can’t play the game if you don’t ante-up. Make teaching more attractive in Georgia than elsewhere and there won’t be shortages. At least that makes sense to me.

Until next week, when I hope to give you a report from Aruba, Peace! tomiswho@mindspring.com