Imagine you are in a Doctor's office and the receptionist says "Oh, I am sorry but the Dr. is not in today but we found someone off the street, who may not necessarily be (and probably isn't) licensed to fill in for him, go on in and he will see you now".  Let's be honest, you would leave skid marks out of there.

Does it ever seem odd to you that when teachers are absent we replace them with "substitute" teachers?  Substitute teachers do not have to have a teaching credential or a college degree.  Most district only require that they pass a very basic test and pass a background check.  Do I think that the students are negatively affected by subs?  No.  Do I think the teaching profession is weakened by subs?  Yes.  I am sorry but I just think that it's difficult to gain the respect of the public when we just throw warm bodies in the classroom to cover for us when we are not there.  So what is the fix? I don't know.  I know that we can't have this pool of credentialed teachers sitting at home waiting for a call each morning.  How about rather than addressing the sub issue we address the teacher absenteeism issue.  Teachers usually get 10 sick days a year and I think that most teachers use them all.  Most districts allow their teachers to "roll over" their unused sick days and bank them for later use.  My district actually allows me to use my unused sick days (at the end of my career) towards my retirement.  For each sick day that I have saved up I can retire a day early.  I have accumulated roughly 110 sick days over the last 12 years which, at this rate, will allow me to retire at least a year early.  This is a nice gesture but I think teachers would prefer a more immediate bonus.  A substitute teacher will cost a district around $150 per day (long term subs can make up to $200 a day) so a teacher who uses all of their sick days will cost the district $1500.  There must be some sort of more immediate way to entice teachers to not use their sick days.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of fabulous substitute teachers out there (my sister is one) but I just think that it's hard to gain the respect of the public (who ultimately end up voing on a lot of initiatives that fund education) when we replace ourselves with less qualified people.  My brother worked at a school (in Japan) where teachers covered for eachother when one of them were absent.  Those with the best attendance had to cover the least amount of classes which was a huge motivator for improved attendance.