The Magical 1,000
One thousand new hires seems to be the new mantra of the Markell Administration in response the laying off of over 200 teachers in Delaware. Who can argue about the hiring of 1,000 new teachers? As a matter of fact, Delaware Dem even promotes the 1,000 new hires as an offset to the layoffs. But is it really an offset?
Getting teachers on the ground – they are shovel ready, you know – is of utmost importance. But let’s take a look at what is meant by 1,000 new hires. From The News Journal article, “Future uncertain for Delaware’s Teachers”:
It’s hard to say how many educators will be lost next school year in Delaware. Some of the people who are laid off could be rehired as districts sort through enrollment and funding numbers over the summer. Superintendents told the state they expect to cut 225 education-related jobs but plan to have 1,000 new hires who will replace workers who retire, resign or, in some cases, fill newly created positions.
Delaware Dem does mention that that 1,000 new hires will “replace workers who retire or resign and to fill new positions”. The crux of the issue is how will you count new hires. Is it new positions or is it replacement workers?
From my own work experience there is a difference between hiring someone to replace a worker who has left and hiring a worker for a newly created position. A big difference. Throw in there that over 200 positions are being effectively closed, the gap widens. We can argue semantics on this issue, however, I believe it is disingenuous to repeatedly say there will be 1,000 new hires. It might be true, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
And as I mentioned in the comments of Delaware Dem’s post, I’m not very comfortable with the idea that “many” teachers are rehired. As the Markell Administration was quick to point out, the Indian River School District rehires many of their RIF’ed teachers — historically, yes, this is true of Indian River, but this is not a portable statistic that can be moved from district to district.
So, what I am left with is wanting to know how many “newly created positions” will there be for classroom teachers?
Tags: Education, Governor Markell
My understanding is that the preference is for rehiring RIF-ed teachers instate if they have an open position. How many are rehired from district to district will be interesting to find out.
I only care how many teaching positions there are to the extent that class sizes are reduced. Go ahead, play with the contracts and argue about the total numbers. But in the end, it’s all about class size. No education reform can be successful unless class sizes start to come down.
Get thee to thy school board meeting and oppose the class size waivers.
careful big fella
and besides it’s not what you know…it’s who you know in Delaware
Again, are we talking about the individuals or the teaching positions? I recall stories a few years back pointing out that a high proportion of the state’s teachers were coming up on retirement. Except for the few districts with strong population growth (Appoquinimink and maybe Smyrna), I’m pretty sure these “hires” will be to replace those who retire or leave for other reasons.