Tag: Shortage

Veterans become teachers, help with shortage of educators nationwide: They've 'built resiliency'

School districts across the country are hiring military veterans as teachers.

This comes as school districts nationwide face teaching shortages. 

Eighty-six percent of public schools reported challenges in hiring teachers this past school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. 

JOB SKILLS OF FORMER MILITARY INCLUDE A ‘MISSION-CRITICAL’ APPROACH TO THEIR WORK

Each state sets its own requirements for military veterans to qualify to become teachers. (See the video at the top of this article.) 

In most states, these individuals need to have a bachelor’s degree and pass a background check. 

Veterans who have become teachers said they encourage others to do the same. 

Ryan Pavel said he served in the Marine Corps for five years.

“When I got out, I had a notion I wanted to be a teacher, but I didn’t know exactly what that would look like,” Pavel said.

Pavel said he questioned how he could keep serving something bigger than himself after he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army. 

THESE 5 US MILITARY CEMETERIES IN SURPRISING NATIONS ARE LASTING REMINDERS OF AMERICA’S GLOBAL SACRIFICE

Pavel said that thanks to help from nonprofit Teach for America, he became a 9th grade English teacher in Detroit.

Pavel said he found he already had many skills needed to teach.

“Every veteran has had to work with a diverse group of people,” said Pavel. “They have had to be able to accomplish some type of mission, and they’ve built resiliency as the result of the things they have had to do.”

Now, Pavel said he is CEO of his own nonprofit called the Warrior-Scholar Project. 

NATIONWIDE TEACHER SHORTAGES LEAVE SCHOOL DISTRICTS RELYING ON ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS

The program helps veterans earn degrees and find careers across the United States.

ASPIRE to Teach, another program, said it’s helped 2,500 veterans earn their teacher’s license. 

ASPIRE to Teach is an alternative teacher preparation program in Colorado. The program is available for teachers in all Pre K-12 educational settings.​

Jessica Bell graduated from the ASPIRE to Teach program in Colorado and is a 7th grade literacy teacher at a school in Denver.  

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Bell said her time spent serving inspired her to talk about mental health in the classroom.

After focusing on her own mental health, she realized it was a subject she could educate students on to make a difference.

“It doesn’t have to be seen as something that hinders who you are. It’s what makes you better,” Bell said.

Bell added that she is not teaching just to make a living — it’s become her passion. 

“I do feel [that if] there are veterans that feel like this is their talent and this is their joy — then they should step into the role of teaching,” Bell said.

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Seattle Fire Dept. facing mass staff shortage after vaccine mandate: 'Gambling' with lives

A former Seattle firefighter issued a stark public safety warning over the department’s massive staffing shortage as it allegedly refuses to rehire those fired over the COVID vaccine mandate.

Andy Pittman worked for the city of Seattle for more than six years before he was fired for refusing to take the vaccine. He joined “Fox & Friends First” to discuss how the shortage is impacting public safety in the Emerald City. 

“The city administration and Chief Scoggins are definitely gambling with the city’s lives,” Pittman told Ashley Strohmier on Tuesday. “It’s been shown before that one to two units out of service can have a pretty significant impact in the growth of the fire.”

SEATTLE REVERSES COURSE ON DEFUNDING POLICE AS CRIME RAVAGES LOCALS: ‘A HUGE CRISIS’

“Fires are growing at a much more rapid rate, so we have an even smaller amount of time to make a rapid response and get the fire out and rescue victims,” he continued. “So it’s very imperative that they start to play by the rules and act with integrity, which they haven’t up to this point.”

The city reportedly refused to rehire individuals fired over the vaccine, but is willing to entertain employing those who “resigned, retired, or was separated for medical or disability reasons but not granted disability retirement may request return of their name to a supplemental register to be considered with the open graded eligible register for the classification or rank,” The Post Millennial reported.

The staffing crisis has been so severe that certain fire units have allegedly been “browned out,” a term Pittman described as an effort to redistribute firefighters to mitigate the significant staffing deficiencies across the city. 

SEATTLE TIMES COLUMNIST IRKS PROGRESSIVE READERS WITH FOCUS ON SOARING CRIME AFTER GOVERNMENT DEFUNDED POLICE

“Browning out units is a term used when there’s not enough units to cover the city, and so when there’s not enough units, they have to shut some units down and start shuffling people to other units in the city to make sure that other areas are covered,” he said. “So rather than dealing with the staffing shortages, Chief Scoggins is focused on terms like brownout.”

As of July 2022, there were more than 100 staff vacancies, which could take several months and even up to one year to fill, according to Seattle radio host Ari Hoffman. 

But Pittman argued he believes the department is even further behind from mitigating the crisis than that. 

“Right now, they’re bringing members into the department, and they’re not able to pass all of the training, so they’re having to let those members go because they can’t meet the minimum qualifications and standards,” Pittman said. “So they’re actually falling much behind their projected staffing.”

“They only have 39 members actively through recruit school. They started with 53 that a target of 80. Currently, there’s about 40 vacancies as of March into April, and that’s not looking any better,” he continued. 

But even despite the challenges surrounding his termination, Pittman, who owns a construction company, said he would “absolutely” return to work at the department, citing his willingness to serve his community. 

“I love that job,” Pittman said. “A lot of my family still works there. Most firefighters do it because their duty to serve… It’s not about the job. It’s about the love of the job.”