Elementary School Teachers

Employment opportunities for elementary school teachers are expected to decline by 1 percent from 2023 to 2033, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Despite this prediction, there will continue to be good demand for teachers because of the need to replace retiring teachers or those who leave the field for other careers.

Inner-city schools characterized by poor working conditions and low salaries often suffer a shortage of teachers. In addition, more opportunities exist for those who specialize in a subject in which it is harder to attract qualified teachers, such as mathematics, science (especially chemistry and physics), bilingual education, or foreign languages.

The National Education Association has indicated that it will be a difficult challenge to hire enough new teachers to meet rising enrollments and replace the large number of retiring teachers, primarily because of low teacher salaries. Higher salaries along with other necessary changes, such as smaller classroom sizes and safer schools, will be necessary to attract new teachers and retain experienced ones. Other challenges for the profession involve attracting more men into teaching. The percentage of male teachers continues to decline.

"The number of students enrolling in public kindergarten and elementary schools is expected to decrease over the projections decade," the U.S. Department of Labor explains. "However, as parents and teachers support smaller class sizes, the number of classes should remain stable and result in a need for more teachers of students in these schools."

In order to improve education, drastic changes are being considered by some districts. Some private companies are managing public schools in the hope of providing better facilities, faculty, and equipment. Teacher organizations are concerned about taking school management away from communities and turning it over to remote corporate headquarters.

Charter schools and voucher programs are two other controversial alternatives to traditional public education. Publicly funded charter schools are not guided by the rules and regulations of traditional public schools. Some view these schools as places of innovation and improved educational methods; others see them as ill-equipped and unfairly funded with money that could better benefit local school districts. Vouchers, which exist only in a few cities, use public tax dollars to allow students to attend private schools. In theory, the vouchers allow for more choices in education for poor and minority students. Teacher organizations see some danger in giving public funds to unregulated private schools and fear that voucher programs will degrade the quality of public schools by reducing their funding.