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Of Pharmacists and Substitute Teachers

Posted by Marc
December 5, 2007

Indianapolis can’t find enough pharmacists. Due to a myriad of forces, there is way more demand than there is supply. And now, Medco is building a new distribution center that will put additional pressure on demand through the hiring of 1300 workers, many of them pharmacists. And these are well paying jobs, the typical salary for a community pharmacist can be upwards of $80,000.

NOTE TO SOON TO GRADUATE COLLEGE SON: You reading this??

Medical schools are doing what they can to provide more supply, there is just no quick fix. Even pharmaceutical technicians, those cute kids that actually put the pills in the bottles (under the supervision of the pharmacists) are pulling in $30k per year.

And since we’re all getting older, and since drug companies keep coming up with new and better drugs to make us newer and better, the need will increase in the foreseeable future.

Now the other side. It seems that there are a couple of classes at a junior high school with no-one standing at the front of the room. No teachers. No substitute. Consider the following:

Nationwide, some 2.2 million teachers will be needed in the next 10 years because of teacher attrition and retirement and increased student enrollment.

By 2008, national public school enrollment will exceed 54 million, an increase of nearly 2 million children over today. Enrollment in elementary schools is expected to increase by 17 percent and in high schools by 26 percent.

In high-poverty urban and rural districts alone, more than 700,000 new teachers will be needed in the next 10 years.

And some more sobering news:

In a typical year, an estimated 6 percent of the nation’s teaching force leaves the profession and more than 7 percent change schools. (Source: National Center for Education Statistics).

Twenty percent of all new hires leave teaching within three years. (Source: National Center for Education Statistics).

In urban districts, close to 50 percent of newcomers flee the profession during their first five years of teaching. (Source: Darling-Hammond & Schlan).

In my neighborhood (a suburb north of Indianapolis), schools are paying $75-$100/day for substitute teachers. Unlike when I was kid, these folks don’t even need to teach, they do not have to have expertise in a particular field. They are baby sitters. And no one wants the job.

So, classrooms remain without any supervision and have for nearly three months. Enough to make you feel nauseous. Too bad there aren’t any pharmacists to get you medicine…