Teacher Shortages Can Be Fixed With Higher Pay
When McDonald's pays more than substitute teaching does, there's really only one response.
Boosting pay is the only answer.
Photographer: Michael Mathes/AFP
The service sector's scramble to find workers is going to come to the public school system by the end of the summer. The reasons go back as far as the 2008 financial crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic and broader dynamics in the labor market right now. School districts should act now to bolster pay so that in a few months they're not going through the same kind of extreme labor shortages being experienced by the hospitality industry.
Outside of leisure and hospitality, it's education that's dealing with the largest employment shortfall related to the pandemic. From peak to trough, state and local government education shed more than a million jobs, and as of April's employment report the shortfall is still 900,000 workers.