Teacher Shortage

Teacher Shortage

[原文]

Tina Millington: Teaching is, to me, the greatest profession. It is a profession, it's not a job. It's something that many teachers choose at the beginning and do for the rest of their lives.

But fewer people than ever are choosing the profession. That's why Tina Millington is leading this literature class at Brooklyn's Sheep's Head Bay High School and not in her native Barbados, where she's a 1)certified 1 teacher.

Tina Millington: They came to us and invited us, basically, to bring what we had to offer.

They are recruiters from the New York City's Public School system, which is facing its worse teacher shortage ever.

Harold Levy 2: This year we have a large number of teachers from Barbados, from Spain, from Canada, and from the other English-speaking Caribbean countries.                                                     

750 international teachers to be exact, all hired by Chancellor 3 of New York City schools, Harold Levy.

Harold Levy: We have a national teacher shortage.

A shortage indeed. At the start of this school year, 2)nearly a quarter of a billion teaching jobs were unfilled nationwide, sending the 3)Big Apple and other big cities looking internationally. Philadelphia's Board of Education, dealing 4 with a shortfall of 800 teachers, 4)scoured India. Chicago went to 35 countries to help fill three thousand jobs and Huston needing one thousand teachers, searched Russia and Poland. What's the problem? Some say money.

Ed Eubanks: We go overseas for two reasons: because we don't have the skill base here in America to fulfill 6 the positions or the people who have the skill aren't willing to work in the salary working conditions that are being offered and we believe that it's the latter.

Ed Eubanks is a recruiter for the National Education Association Union and feels that 42 thousand dollars average year starting salary is too small.

Ed Eubanks: Teachers are paid considerably 7 less than professions that require a similar amount of education and skill.

How much less? In the 1970s the difference in starting pay between teachers and lawyers here in New York City was only about $2,000 a year. Today, it's more than 100 thousand and the gap is widening.

Ed Eubanks: There was a time in this country where we paid an appropriate amount for what they did, today we talk a good game about doing that but in fact, we don't.

In New York, the average starting salary is only 32 thousand dollars, 10 thousand below the national average. But lack of pay isn't the only issue, growth is another. Over the next 4 years, 20 million students will enter the nation's high schools, a third more than the current enrolment, and at the same time, more than a million teachers will retire. 5)Attrition is yet another issue of those teachers who are hired, 20% are lost within 3 years.

Randi Weigarten:The problem with the system and the problem across the country is, can you recruit who you want, can you retain the good ones and can you 6)winnow 8 out the ones you want to get rid of? And at each step of the way we're hindered.

But some critics believe that going overseas has its 7)drawbacks. Relaxed hiring standards and strict immigration laws, limiting international teachers to only 2-year visas.

Randi Weigarten: They're not going to be here for a long time, this is not a way of staffing the New York City schools.

Indeed many of the teachers recruited from international locations are uncertified, leading most experts to believe that the solution is more of a short-term fix than anything else. Still, they believe it is the right move as long as the long-term goal is making the profession of teaching more attractive.

Ed Eubanks: No one's ever gone into teaching to make a fortune. People go into teaching because they want to do something of greater benefit to society of selfless importance.

美国教师告急

[译文]

蒂娜·米林顿：我认为教师是非常高尚的职业。这是一门专业，不只是工作。许多人一旦执起教鞭，一生就没有再放下。

可选择当教师的人却比从前更少了。这也是为什么蒂娜·米林顿现在会在布鲁克林区的羊头湾中学教文学课，而不是留在她的本国巴巴多斯，她在巴巴多斯是一名执证教师。

蒂娜·米林顿：实际上是他们来找我们，邀请我们来教书的。

“他们”指的是纽约市公立学校委员会的招聘人员，纽约正经受着前所未有的教师短缺。

哈洛德·列维：今年我们从巴巴多斯、西班牙、加拿大以及别的说英语的加勒比海国家招聘了大量教师。

准确地说，招到的750名国际教师全是由纽约市立学校校长哈洛德·列维负责招聘的。

哈洛德·列维：全美国都缺教师。

    的确很缺乏。在本学年初始，全美国约有2.5亿个教职空缺，弥补空缺使“大苹果”纽约市还有其他大城市看起来更国际化了。费城的学校董事会为了补充800个教职空缺而找遍印度。芝加哥去35个国家想招满三千名教师；休斯顿到俄罗斯和波兰寻求一千名教师。问题的症结在哪里呢？有人说是钱的关系。

艾德·尤班斯：去海外找的两个理由是：在美国我们没有教师培训基地，或者有此技能的人接受不了现有的薪金标准——我们相信出于后者的原因居多。

    艾德·尤班斯是美国教育联会的招聘人员，他就觉得年薪4.2万美元的起价太低了。

艾德·尤班斯：与需要同等教育和技能培训的其他职业相比，教师的薪酬太低了。

    有多低呢？在二十世纪七十年代，纽约市教师和律师的年薪起价只相差两千美元。到今天，差别已到十多万。

艾德·尤班斯：美国曾一度支付给教师合理的薪金，今天我们常说要提高教师的报酬，其实并没有做到。

在纽约，教师的平均起薪只有3.2万美元，比全国平均水平低1万。不只低薪是个问题，学子的增加也成问题。未来四年将有两千万名学生入读全国各地的中学，数量比当前高出三分之一，同时还将有一百万名教师退休。另一问题是在职教师的自然流失，三年中流失了20%。

兰迪·威加顿：这种制度存在着问题，而且问题遍及全国：你是否能招到你想要的教师？你是否能留住好的教师而去掉不好的？这当中每一步我们都困难重重。

还有人相信到海外寻求教师有其不足之处：招聘标准宽松，移民条令严格，海外教师被限制只能拿到为期两年的签证。

兰迪·威加顿：他们不会长期留下来，这个办法解决不了纽约市学校的情况。

确实，许多海外招回的教师是无证的，专家们相信此举只能是权宜之计，但依然是正确的做法，只是从长远考虑，应该想办法让教职变得更吸引人。

艾德·尤班斯：没有人当教师是为了要赚钱的。人们教书是为了更好地服务社会，无私地贡献。

注释：

1) certified [5sE:tifaid] a. 被鉴定的

2) nearly a quarter of 此处为口误，美国只有两亿多人口，不可能有二点五亿个教职空缺

3) Big Apple 美国纽约城

4) scour 5 [5skauE] v. 急速走遍

5) attrition [E5triFEn] n. 磨损

6) winnow [5winEu] v. 扬掉，筛去

7) drawback [5drC:7bAk] n. 缺点，不利条件