What Are Your Job Options in Education? By Idania Duarte

Teaching is a large occupation, representing 4 percent of the entire civilian work force. There are more than twice as many K-12 teachers as registered nurses and five times as many teachers as either lawyers or professors. Factors influencing teacher supply and demand are: Student Enrollment in Schools, Class Sizes, Geographical Location, Subject Matter and Grade Levels Taught, Retiring Teachers, Teacher Turnover, Returning Teachers and Economic Conditions. One of the greatest teacher supply-and-demand problems concerns minority teachers. At a time when the minority school-age population is increasing = rapidly, the number of minority teachers is decreasing. The shortage is severe now and appears likely to become worse. This shortage of minority teacher is problematic for several reasons. First, the growing number of minority children deserve to have positive minority role models who can help guide them in a world still plagued by racism. Second, white children also need to have minority role models to help them overcome the effects of stereotyping and racism. Third, it is important for our country's well-being to have a teaching staff that reflects the diversity of racial and ethnic backgrounds in our country's population. A large employer of teachers is the U.S. government. The Department of Defense operates 224 elementary and secondary schools in seven stats, Puerto Rico, Guam, and fourteen countries around the world, making it the twenty-second largest school district in the United States. These schools enroll approximately 106,000 students and employ about 9,000 educational personnel. Private education is a highly significant part of the American educational system. There are more the 26,000 private schools with an enrollment of more than 6 million preschool, elementary, and secondary school students and a staff of 413,000 teachers. What are teachers paid? We might answer this question by saying, "Not nearly enough." No one ever went into teaching because of the lure of big money. Most of teachers' satisfactions come from being of service to others and helping students learn. The 2001-02 average salary of classroom teachers in the United States is estimated to be about $44,600. Many indicators point to a strong demand for teachers in the coming years. Impending retirements in the current teaching force and increased school enrollments are encouraging signs for prospective teachers. America has become an education-oriented society. This means we are committed to more and better education, to life-long learning in and out schools. More than seventy years ago, President Calving Coolidge said, "The business of America is business." Today and into the future, the business of America is education. Teaching is where the action is and will continue to be!