How hard is it to find a teaching job in PA?

[Honest Bob]

UM,

I have several family members who are / were school teachers.

Now my personal opinion here, and this is just personal, is that it sounds to me as if you have been a professional college student and now that college is over, you are basically walking out into the work with these pieces of paper that says that you have a education and is qualified to work as a school teacher - but you have no experience.
At the same time you are walking out the door and basically saying - Here I am world, I'm done with school, now give me a job.

It just don't work that way.

If you really want to get a job, just as others has said, two things are going to have to happen. First you are going to have to be willing to move to where the work is at and second you are going to have to be willing to start out at the bottom, which in my opinion is a school where no one else wants to teach and for a level of pay - which isn't as high as it is in the city.

You will always have your Allentowns and Alliquippa's and they will always be hiring.

The prime locations are already taken by people who are somehow related by family, marriage or politically connected. Those jobs, you don't just walk in the door and ask for a job. The only people they hire is subs and the only work you will get is what they give you and once they hire you as a sub and they find out that you are willing to work at a moments notice - with no benefits, you will be profiled as a sub and it will be hard to get out of that pool of teachers. They don't want to loose people who they can work and not have to pay as much money, and can call on a moments notice and you will show up and cover their butts when ever they feel like taking a day off. Which in my district, they get paid extra money if they do not use their personal days and so many of the full time teachers refuses to take time off - unless they are dying.

Everyone would like to have a full time permanent job, your best bet is to get a printer and print about 400 resume's and start sending out job applications to where ever you figure you can find a job where you can live on what they pay.

[wanneroo]

I did some more asking this evening of people that would know and specifically asked why teaching jobs are hard to come by in PA.

The answers I got:

1. PA has so many universities and colleges with teaching programs compared to other states, so there are a significant amount of grads.
2. Declining enrollment due to older population, people moving to other states, home schooling.
3. Nepotism.

They also backed up the thing about subs, in that some people can get promised the world only to be strung out as a sub for a long period of time.

Also they mentioned having a masters as a new teacher was actually not a good thing as the district has to bring you in at a higher pay scale and most don't want to go there.

But also they did say if you got a PA teaching certification which apparently has stringent standards and a little bit of subbing experience, you could easily find a full time job in states like North Carolina or Texas that had a shortage of teachers.

And Home Depot I saw had a special on kneepads. I heard some funny stories again and it sounds like some of these districts are like Roman orgies.