Too Many Teachers?

As most of the nation's 51.6 million schoolchildren trooped back to class after Labor Day, thousands of teachers were still knocking on the schoolhouse doors. The "teacher shortage," once as widely deplored and resignedly accepted as the national debt, is virtually over.

Typical is northern California's rural Siskiyou County. Last year Siskiyou had to delay the opening of one of its schools because it could not find teachers. This year officials were deluged with 20 to 30 letters a day asking for teaching assignments. In Grand Rapids, Mich., getting some teaching jobs has become almost as hard as getting into Harvard, with 50 applicants for each position in history. The massive New York City school system, which until two years ago conducted summer crash training programs for apprentice teachers, began school last week with about 4,500 extra applicants.

Record Crop. A major reason for the change is the aging of the postwar baby boom. As the babies reached school age in the '50s and early '60s, they created the teacher shortage by their sheer numbers. Now they have moved through college and produced a record crop of teachers. This year the new academic job seekers are being joined by refugees from the tight private job market.

Meanwhile, the U.S. birth rate has been declining. This fall, for the first time since 1946, elementary school enrollment is expected to decrease slightly, by about 100,000 pupils. That is enough to make some school districts cut back their hiring. In addition, school boards from Dayton to suburban Scarsdale, N.Y., have had difficulty getting their school levies past the voters.

Dime a Dozen. Actually, the oversupply of teachers is largely confined to certain subjects. By one estimate, for example, the U.S. now has 15,000 qualified social studies teachers who cannot find jobs in their field. At the same time shortages still exist in math and science, preschool education, guidance work, industrial arts and programs for the handicapped. The changing job market may even improve teaching slightly as administrators stop hiring instructors with minimum qualifications. Says Siskiyou's Assistant Superintendent Bob Dais: "Master's degrees are a dime a dozen now."

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