New teachers facing tight LI job market

Student teacher Adnen Ayari has spent the last semester teaching French in the Bay Shore school district, but he worries what will happen when he starts looking for his first teaching job after graduation next month.

"I'm really concerned," said Ayari, 36, of West Islip, who immigrated to the United States from Tunisia in 1998, earned his bachelor's degree in education in 2009, and will receive his master's from Stony Brook University. "I have a family and it is really important for me to find a job."

New teachers on Long Island -- many of whom are working as student teachers during their final semesters before graduation -- face an uncertain future professionally, longtime educators say. The job market is tough enough, but graduates also may be competing for positions with other teachers who have a few years of experience but are out of work.

Budget problems

Local school districts, squeezed between ever-rising operating costs and $1.3 billion in cuts in state aid, have proposed staff layoffs, pay freezes and hefty cuts in programs and services. In addition, enrollments on Long Island are trending downward, projected to drop 7.6 percent over the next five years, which could force some districts to consider closing or merging schools.

Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that teachers' employment is expected to grow by 13 percent by 2018. But overall student enrollments -- a key factor in the demand for teachers -- are expected to rise more slowly than in the past, as children of the Baby Boom generation leave the school system. Enrollments in the Northeast are projected to continue to decline.

"It's just an unfortunate situation that we are not going to be able to pursue something we are being trained to do and something that we love to do," said Dawn Cowie, 23, who is graduating from Stony Brook University and has been student-teaching in Miller Place.

The pain is widespread. The Sachem schools may have to let up to 80 teachers go. The William Floyd school district, which has a teaching staff of 692, may cut 48 teachers among about 100 positions. Superintendent Paul Casciano said the budget crisis probably means no teaching openings.

The immense New York City school system is faring no better. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed 4,600 layoffs this year.

"The mood overall is definitely discouraging. You see that. Even kids in my program -- the future teachers -- have dropped out of the program," said student teacher Derek Pearce, 21, of Levittown, who is graduating from Hofstra University.

New hires often are a primary target for layoffs, said Hamilton Lankford, professor of education policy at the University at Albany, who researches the education job market.

"If you look at school budgets, most of it is in salaries, and most of the people working in school districts have tenure," he said. "When a district has to reduce its expenditures because of a decline in a source of revenue . . . they don't have a great deal of flexibility, and one of the places they do is in terms of new hires."

Michael Crowell, senior economist with the New York State Department of Labor, said the short-term prospects for new teachers don't "look all that great, to be honest."

"A lot of the reason that these teachers are being laid off now is related to the bad economy and largely to the state budget deficit, and that's based on the economy as a whole not doing well," he said.

Hope in economy

Crowell mentioned one glimmer of hope: There are signs the economy is improving, he said, which could lead to more teaching jobs in the longer term.

But for now, Hofstra education professor Alan Singer said he sees a climate similar to that in the early 1970s, when he received his certification and the job market was tight.

"We are looking at some lean years," said Singer, who advises future teachers to make themselves more marketable by earning advanced degrees or substitute teaching. Starting teachers locally can earn about $50,000 a year, he said.

Cowie said she plans to pursue a master's degree.

"I am very hopeful," she said. "I am willing to accept the fact that it might take a little while for me to pursue a career."

Teachers are needed in certain concentrations, such as family and consumer sciences, a state-mandated subject in middle school. This fall, Hofstra will be one of a handful of universities offering a master's in that program, once known as home economics.

"It is a nice option in terms of a master's program in an area where, in fact, the certification will lead to employment," said Marsha Iverson, the program's director.

Officials at C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University have combined the School of Education with the Palmer School of Library and Information Science and the Department of Computer Science to give students more opportunities, said Robert Manheimer, dean of education.

Straight talk for grads

"We are being very frank with those who are graduating, telling them how tough the job market is," he said. "We are providing them with enough skills to transfer them to other places -- private schools, parochial schools."

Manheimer said new teachers can look outside of the region, too. Baltimore, for example, has a teacher shortage, he said.

Adelphi University's Jane Ashdown, dean of the Ruth S. Ammon School of Education, took an optimistic outlook, saying she expects the local job market to improve, especially by the time incoming Adelphi freshmen are seeking work.

"When they graduate in five years, I think the employment landscape will look quite different," said Ashdown. "Our students . . . are very passionate about wanting to be teachers."

Adelphi student Melanie Fidler of Brooklyn will graduate next month with a master's in art education. She has been student-teaching in Lynbrook and would love to be in a classroom, she said, but will consider relocating or working in a different setting, such as a museum.

"I read about all these things, and the budget cuts and it's daunting . . . but to be honest, I am very optimistic," Fidler said. "I think of life as a journey, and it may lead me to some other place. It might not be a high school or elementary school, and that is OK with me."