What's in store for teachers?

July 7, 9:34 PMSan Jose Education ExaminerElpidio Estioko

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There's  no doubt the teaching job in California is really down! School districts, not only in San Jose and Mil pitas, did not only lay-off teachers  but likewise froze hiring.

This is an offshoot of California's budget cuts which affected heavily the education sector. Even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's alternative plan of action to salvage educators  through Measures 6A and 6B during the recent  Special elections were rejected by Californians. The two measures should have re-hired the laid-off teachers and  should have prevented further lay-offs.

So, what now teachers and would-be teachers?

Here in San Jose, there are groups of teachers who were lucky and were not affected by the budget cuts. They retained their jobs and their benefits were not affected. These are teachers from San Jose Job Corps, John Muir High School, and Science for Integrated Academics & Technology (SIATech).  The three academic institutions  even hired more teachers, filled their vacant  positions, and replaced positions vacated by retiring and resigning teachers.

For those who are planning to go into the teaching profession, they really need to wait for the economy to recover. As to how long will it  take, we do not know.  But, what we know is that teachers will always be on demand.  The number of students are not decreasing, but increasing. There's always a need for teachers to educate our children who are the future of the country.

This will be the most opportune time for would-be teachers to prepare for their credentials. For those who immigrated to the US and planned to teach, they need to work on their equivalency. All they need are their original transcripts, pay the  processing fee  for the application and submit them to  accrediting agencies. Next, they need to pass their CBEST which is a pre-requisite for teaching in California. These two documents are the entry-level credentials for would-be teachers  to comply to be able  to teach.

Jobs in education definitely declined due to the economic meltdown. There ares still, however, some positions remaining, especially in adult education, charter schools, and the private sector. These are the areas in education we need to explore!