Jacob Goodwin writes in The Progressive that the best solution to the teacher shortage is to strengthen teacher unions, assuring teachers of working conditions, job security, and benefits at a time when the teaching profession and public schools are under attack by rightwing nuts.
Goodwin writes:
In February, the National Education Association conducted a survey of its three million members and found that 90 percent of respondents felt that burnout was a “serious problem,” while more than half of members reported thinking about leaving the profession “earlier than planned.”
This immediate shortage of teachers is paired with long-term concerns, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicting that there will be an 8 percent increase in the number of high school teachers that are needed by 2030. But more immediately, the current teacher shortage is the product of an orchestrated attack on public spaces that, unfortunately, gained momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I teach social studies to six graders at a public school in New Hampshire, which in July 2021 joined the ranks of at least five other states that have restricted classroom conversations about race and gender. Despite what their proponents claim, these laws are clear political ploys designed with the express purpose of stopping honest conversations about history in schools by intimidating teachers….
Teachers need to come together to revitalize associations from the ground up and push back on attacks on our public schools. Local teachers can find power by volunteering to participate in union actions and strengthening relationships across district boundaries. Educators who rise to this challenge will be following the work of generations past who fought to establish labor rights.
After all, unions are an iteration of the long American tradition of citizens coming together for a common civic purpose. As an essential part of each community, union members must demand democratic reforms internally as well. Challenging existing union leadership leads to increased ferment and dialogue within the union. The best ideas often bubble to the surface in spaces that embrace purposeful debate.
Unions also help to institutionalize civic norms and practices. To be leaders in the broader community, unions must demand democratic reforms internally. The practice of openness serves as a buttress against organizational rigor mortis. Creating an internal culture of openness and support will help empower members of diverse backgrounds and experiences and act as a safeguard against cliques and narrowness. This can be reinforced through adopting term limits for officers and establishing leadership development programs that increase the capacity of the next generation of labor leaders and local stewards.
Please open the link and read the rest of this excellent article.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The best cure for a lot of what’s happening in the U.S. today is union power. We need a great reawakening of the union movement here.
And thank you, Diane, for standing with unions and with working people generally!
“The National Education Association conducted a survey of its three million members and found that 90 percent of respondents felt that burnout was a “serious problem,”
The other 10% were adminimals. . . .
Why do people insist on calling the NEA a union when management, i.e., adminimals, is allowed to be a part of it?
The NEA is not a union. From my experiences with it those adminimals hold a lot of power in the local NEA’s and many times the NEA becomes/is nothing more than a mouthpiece for adminimals.
When I started teaching……….drum roll……….the principal ran the teacher’s association meetings. I kid you not. How free would a teacher feel to speak up about unfair labor practices with the principal in charge of the meeting. It was an obvious attempt to squelch and control the teacher’s association and to intimidate the teachers into silence. But wait, it gets better. One of the outspoken teachers was the sister of the superintendent of schools. She was anti-union and often spoke disparagingly of the union leadership. The following year, the principal was no longer leading the teacher association meetings and in fact was not permitted to be in the meetings at all. That was progress but the superintendent’s sister was still at the meetings to snitch on what went on and who said what. I remember the principal grousing and complaining about his ouster from the teacher association meetings. It was hilarious to see him complaining about the insult to his so-called personage.
The sister of the superintendent taught first grade at the school where I began teaching. She drove to school in a huge Cadillac and her husband was the president of a local bank. Not exactly a union supporter and quite conservative in her views. Mercifully, I was at the other end of the school from her and had very little contact with her since we were on different lunch and recess breaks.
Why am I not surprised about your experiences?
Well said for the most part with a bit of political rhetoric at the end. Term limits take the choice out of the hands of voters.
A strong focus on systemic reform will empower teachers turning stress into the joy of teaching. Replacing the test with demonstrated proficiencies while making failure a positive part of the learning process will bring focus to students.
It’s time to Stop Politically Driven Education (google that 😀
The co-founder of the DFER — Democrats for Education Reform, a cadre of hedge fund billionaires which promotes charter schools — said that a core reason why DFER was founded is to end teachers’ unions. Sad to note that Barack Obama was the keynote speaker at DFER’s founding celebration and that he appointed DFER-darling Arne Duncan as his Secretary of Education, who then proceeded to vastly expand the funding for and the number of charters schools.
YES, and the saddest reality is that with just a touch of effort it is possible to find out that DFER was set up to dupe the Democrats, yet so many Democrats are quick to defend their membership in DFER
I think this essay is missing the bow on the ribbon. Yes, teachers need unions. And teachers unions need to focus on a three-pronged focus, each as important as the other: small class sizes, teacher autonomy based on promoting professionalism, funding for professional teacher salaries and school infrastructure and any supplies needed to do the job.
I can add nothing to the article but an emphatic YES. “You may be down and out, but you ain’t beaten / Pass out a leaflet and call a meeting.“
Absolutely correct. Hardly needs to be said with a teacher shortage growing for decades now spiked by covid chasing many into retirement or other jobs. meanwhile pubschsysems, flush with covid rescue cash, opening even more jobs targeting ‘catch-up.’ Strike while the iron is hot!
Neoliberalism and anti-unionism-
From Jezebel 9-9-2022, the major abortion research group in the nation, Guttmacher Institute, hired a law firm whose PACs and employees donated $336,000 to anti-abortion politicians. Why? The Institute’s employees moved to unionize.
CAP’s women (making book for themselves) may support abortion rights but, that doesn’t mean they don’t work for billionaires who hate unions.