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View Full Version : N.O. Teacher Shortage



Hobbit
03-02-2007, 02:00 PM
New Orleans is having trouble finding enough teachers for its schools. Maybe it could have something to do with the fact that many teachers, while stubborn enough to live in a sub-ocean city with insufficient levies, are smart enough not to use their life savings to move back.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7681856

On a side note, did anyone catch this?


Democrats in the House of Representatives have introduced legislation that would give a $5,000 bonus to teachers who commit to three more years in New Orleans. Experienced educators could earn other bonuses.

This is another example of government regulation leading to more government regulation. Under any other business model, a shortfall in personell that can't be solved by moving the labor off-site (you can't ship the students off to Baton Rouge every day), pay is increased for the job until all positions are filled, or the model ceases to be profitable. However, in the government beauracracy of schools, you cannot change teacher pay on an individual or even a local basis. This means that the federal government, in order to solve a problem easily corrected by the free market, is spending $500 million of YOUR money. The reason the charter schools currently outnumber the government schools in New Orleans is because they are allowed to offer extra incentives to teachers to get them to move to an unpleasant, high risk area.