SC's Teacher Shortage Not About Money

Scholarships for those pursuing teaching are effective. South Carolina's Teaching Fellows program has worked over the last 17 years, according to State Superintendent Molly Spearman. So too the Call Me MISTER program to recruit black males to become teachers. 

Not so much the recruiting drive to import teachers from out of state. Looked upon from the Lowcountry angle, no one should be surprised. Take the Charleston County School District, for example. The beauties of the area beckon; then the reality of its struggling schools defeats all but the most dedicated recruits. 

Locals tend to stay; those from off leave. 

"Dorchester School District 2 Superintendent Joe Pye said school districts need to find a way to recruit more locals, who tend to stick around longer."

"We travel all over the North and we haul them in by busloads because they can't find jobs," Pye said, "but the beach only attracts them for a year."

Let's make South Carolina's schools of education first rate and recruit outstanding students to attend. Pay attention to Jody Stallings's points about teaching conditions as published previously.

Gone are the days when female college graduates settled for teaching as the only possible career and put up with all the nonsense. The days of treating teachers as non-professionals should disappear as well.