South Carolina

I subbed over 160 days a year in many districts and spoke to tons of people waiting for a single offer. Since there were too many teacher schools in my area jobs were scarce until they did class size reduction. I checked out private vs public schools then charter schools came into vogue after I did get a contract.

The pros of private school is that the class sizes seemed to be smaller and you didn't have all the bureaucracy of larger districts. The pay is lower though and you do not good benefits and there are no unions for support. I was always under the impression that the kids were better behaved but it is not true. Sometimes private schools are the last resort for problem kids who get in trouble for behavior and burn their bridges at public schools. The parents send them to private school but since they are paying the big bucks the kids are allowed to stay there and the teacher has to deal with the behavior issues.

Charter schools vary so much and this is bad. There is little regulation and standards from the state. They also have high teacher turnover. My friend went to a charter school and was the teacher with the most seniority in only 5 years. He had hoped it would be better than regular public school and it wasn't. Charters are as good as the staff. Also, certain students benefit while others don't...it depends on their personality and is they are self motivated, work well with others, etc. Some aren't prepared for college when the time comes either.