Salary and benefits represent 70 percent or more of a typical school district budget, so many are laying off teachers or eliminating open positions.
Almira Saifi, of Albany, is graduating from Syracuse University with a teaching degree. She's standing in front of the university's School of Education.
Syracuse, NY -- This weekend, thousands of would-be teachers will cross the stages at college commencements across New York. Tuesday, voters will cast ballots on school budgets that will eliminate about 16,000 teaching jobs statewide, according to an estimate by the state teachers union.
“It’s difficult to imagine a worse job market for graduates looking for careers in education,” said Carl Korn, who speaks for the New York State United Teachers.
No need to tell that to the graduates, who are scrambling to find alternative work, planning to substitute or seeking the haven of graduate school.
“It’s such a bad time to be a teacher,” mused Yen Thai, who graduates Sunday from Syracuse University with a dual certification in special education and inclusive elementary education. She’s hopeful she’ll get a job in the fall but hasn’t ruled out going back to graduate school if she doesn’t.
By the numbers
Local graduates (bachelor’s and master’s degrees) in teaching and education in 2009-2010:
Syracuse University: 100
Le Moyne College: 249
State University College at Oswego: 571
State University College at Cortland: 781
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Faced with a $9 billion budget deficit and the end of federal stimulus money, Gov. David Paterson has proposed cutting $1.4 billion in aid to schools for the 2010-2011 year. That’s just a proposal, though; the state budget is 44 days late.
With salary and benefits representing 70 percent or more of a typical school budget, and with teachers being the biggest share of that, school boards across the state are laying off teachers or eliminating positions left vacant by retirements. A survey in the spring by the New York State School Boards Association found 77 percent of districts planned to cut teaching positions.
At the same time, state university colleges alone will graduate more than 5,000 students who majored in teacher education. Comparable figures for private colleges were not available.
Some college students who long envisioned teaching as a stable, long-term job are disillusioned. “We thought they’d always need teachers, and now we got screwed,” said Almira Saifi, who is graduating from SU with certifications in regular and special education.
Like many new graduates, she’s planning to substitute and to go to graduate school. New teachers in New York must have a master’s degree within five years of the date they start teaching anyway, she noted. “I figure with the market right now, it’s a better option,” Saifi said.
About a third of education graduates decide to go to graduate school right away anyway, said Doug Biklen, dean of SU’s School of Education. Applications for the graduate school have increased about 20 percent in the past two years, he said.
Central New York produces its share of teachers: More than 1,700 are graduating this year with bachelor’s or master’s degrees from SU, Le Moyne College and the state university colleges at Cortland and Oswego.
“In this area, there are so many colleges producing teachers, and it’s kind of dismal out there,” said Linda McGraw, director of career services at LeMoyne. “I know some of our students are going south and hoping they’ll get jobs down there.”
They might be disappointed. According to the American Association of School Administrators, 82 percent of school districts across the country plan to cut jobs this year. That will amount to a loss of about 150,000 teaching jobs, or 4 percent of the total.
Jeremiah Best was following his dream when he left retail management in Tennessee and came to New York four years ago to pursue his teaching degree. “I decided what I would enjoy most for the rest of my life was education, being able to shape young minds and take my experiences and be able to share them with students,” said Best, 30.
He is scheduled to graduate in December from Cortland State with a degree in childhood education. Even though he has student debt from his bachelor’s degree, he’s going to stick around Cortland for a couple more years and go deeper into debt to get his master’s. He wants to teach in New York, where he has family.
“If push comes to shove, though,” Best said, “I’ll go back down South and go somewhere where I can get a job.”
Contact Glenn Coin at gcoin@syracuse.com or 470-3251.