Laid-off N.J. workers find teaching is an iffy Plan B

Marker in hand, Al Brown looked like a natural jotting equations onto a whiteboard and explaining algebraic concepts to his class of fellow would-be teachers at Burlington County College.

"Next, I want to get into the slope-intercept form of single-line equations," he said, sounding quite like the middle school instructor he aspires to be.

But Brown, laid off from an information-technology management job last year after more than two decades in the field, is a man with concerns.

Forty resumes he sent out have yielded only one job interview and no offers. In a year of deep cuts in state education aid, defeated school budgets, and thousands of teacher layoff notices in New Jersey, most of his classmates aren't faring much better.

Is he worried?

"Absolutely," the Marlton resident said, away from class. "I'm scrambling to see what my options might be."

What a difference a year makes. Last summer, programs aimed at fast-tracking the teacher-certification process were booming in South Jersey, attracting career changers and refugees from a punishing recession.

To many, teaching was Plan B - possibly less lucrative than their former careers, but stable and rewarding work with good benefits.

By fall, there already were signs that the Plan-B'ers might need a Plan C.

New Pathways to Teaching in New Jersey - a partnership between New Jersey City University in Jersey City and 15 county colleges, including those in Camden and Burlington - saw a substantial drop in its numbers.

In the program, college graduates first receive several weeks of intensive teacher training. To advance to the next stage, they must get full-time teaching jobs. While working, they take courses in the evenings and receive their certification at the end of the term.

In September, the number of students who had landed jobs and could move to the second stage was 33 percent below the previous year, said Richard Hendrix, dean of graduate studies at New Jersey City University.

"We're not optimistic about the current year," he said.

The county colleges may consolidate their programs and offer classes regionally if enrollment dwindles further, he said.

The number of people entering New Pathways at Camden County College fell from 47 last summer to 15 in June. At Burlington County College, there were 26 new enrollees, down from 44 last summer. Program officials say some potential students are reluctant to commit money to a program they believe may not lead to a job.

At Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., college-educated professionals in the Graduate Level Teacher Certification Program can earn teaching credentials after two semesters of study and one semester student-teaching.

Normally, about half those who student-taught in the spring would have jobs by now, said Kathleen Pierce, chair of the school's department of graduate education, leadership, and counseling. So far, she said, only 10 of about 80 students do. More are usually hired between now and mid-September.

Yet the program's summer enrollment, while down, has not plummeted, Pierce said.

Providing a measure of hope is a huge spike in the number of teachers who say they will retire in July or August - more than 5,600, a 145 percent increase over the number who retired during those months last year. Fear of future benefit cuts, perceived teacher-bashing by Gov. Christie, and the large number of aging baby boomers in the workforce are among the reasons.

But those departures are not a sure bet. Teachers who filed for retirement this summer can rescind their paperwork if their districts are willing to take them back, a state Treasury Department spokesman said. The number of confirmed retirements by June 30 was down somewhat from a year earlier, according to state figures.

In addition, hiring would come after the recall of tenured teachers who received layoff notices. And the teachers-in-training are competing with more experienced applicants.

Instructors and managers in second-career teaching programs say they counsel students on ways to make themselves more marketable and try to direct them toward specialties still in demand. Once students get jobs, they often do very well, said Carol Grant-Holmes, director of the New Pathways program at Burlington, where only two of 26 students in the first stage have netted firm job offers so far.

One of them is Bernadette Katrisiosis, 43, a New Pathways student who spent the last school year teaching Latin and Italian in the Lenape Regional School District.

Katrisiosis earned about $20,000 less than she did as an editor for a trade publication that ran out of money, she said. But she loved her first year teaching - until she became one of 400 Lenape teachers to receive reduction-in-force notices.

A single mother, she was worried, but she tried to keep up a smile for her students. Then, just before the July Fourth weekend, came relief: The district called her back.

Katrisiosis expects another rough budget year, but despite the uncertainty, she is sticking with teaching.

"It's like I finally found what I should be doing," she said.