Keeping teachers here
I spoke yesterday to Ginger Tinney, executive director of the Association of Professional Oklahoma Educators, which has 3,000 members.
Although I called Tinney to talk about teacher job fairs, the issues of teacher recruitment, retention and enticement to remain in Oklahoma are intertwined and came into our discussion.
While I don’t think throwing money at something always fixes it, it is clear that money is what drives many of Oklahoma’s teachers — especially young, newly minted professionals — to Texas and elsewhere.
Granted, the cost of living is greater in many Texas locales, and some districts that offer the greatest pay do so because they are hard-to-work places or need Spanish-speaking teachers. These include those in the inner city, West Texas, etc.
Other voracious recruiters are, in my experience, rapidly growing near-city (note I didn’t say suburban) districts that have to meet changing needs and meet them yesterday.
Aldine Independent School District, a predominantly Hispanic district of 58,000 students about 15 miles north of downtown Houston, is known around the state for being especially aggressive in recruiting teachers and paying them well. Starting salaries for Aldine (pronounced All-deen) teachers are $40,000 to $69,000. Bilingual teachers receive a $4,000 signing bonus as well.
If you’ve flown into George Bush Intercontinental Airport, you’ve flown into Aldine ISD.
So, there definitely is a pay differential, which brings me back to Tinney.
Market conditions affect teachers the same as computer programmers or nurses. She said market conditions would become more pronounced.
Add to this the facts that 50 percent of teachers quit within five years and fewer people are seeking education degrees.
Tinney predicted districts increasingly may have to offer housing assistance, signing bonuses and ensure they put on the hard sell when they pitch teachers to commit.
In other words, aggressive recruitment looks like a fact of life, and districts may have to find the money to compete with their peers statewide and nationwide.
Your thoughts on this?
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