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Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Labor Shortage, Law Enforcement And Teaching In Alaska

 This has been flashing at the State Troopers Headquarters at Tudor and MLK



Now Hiring State Troopers



$20,000 Hiring Bonus


Starting Salary $74,693-100,630


Apply Online Today

Here are the qualifications listed online:


The minimum qualifications for the position of State Trooper Recruit/Lateral are outlined below.

General Qualifications

  • Must be a citizen (including US Nationals) of the United States of America.
  • Must be 21 years of age or older* at the start of the academy .
  • Must be conversant in both spoken and written English.
  • Most possess a high school diploma or have passed a General Education Development (GED) test.


* There is no upper age limit; if you can pass the physical fitness test and medical screening,  you could be hired.

Driving

  • Must possess a valid driver’s license issued within the United States or its Territories.
  • Must be free of excessive moving violations and recent license actions (canceled, revoked, suspended, limited, or SR-22 requirement).

Drugs

Drug use/abuse is closely scrutinized and recent drug use may be cause for elimination from the hiring process, including:

  • Marijuana use within the last year
  • Use of illegal narcotics within the last ten years
  • Manufacture/sale of illegal narcotics as an adult
  • Illegal drug use while employed in a law enforcement position
  • Prescription drug use without a prescription unless there was an immediate, pressing, or emergency medical circumstance to justify the use

Criminal History

  • Adult criminal history is closely scrutinized and the following may be cause for elimination from the hiring process:
  • Felony conduct as an adult
  • Misdemeanor convictions within the last ten years
  • Any conviction related to domestic violence


So a high school diploma or GED is all you need to get a starting salary of


In comparison, here's the salary schedule from the Anchorage Education Association  Contract - teachers.  This is for the 202-1022 school year.  There is a bump up each year, but the highest starting salary is $55,158 and the highest top salary is $97,238.  

100 SERIES – SALARIES AND BENEFITS 105 SALARY SCHEDULE

2021-2022 Salary Schedule

Step

B00

B18

B36

B54

B72

0

53,287

55,872

58,455

61,039

65,882

1

54,698

57,282

59,865

62,448

67,283

2

56,106

58,690

61,273

63,857

68,685

3

57,516

60,099

62,682

65,266

70,087

4

58,925

61,508

64,091

66,674

71,488

5

60,333

62,917

65,501

68,085

72,892

6

61,745

64,326

66,910

69,494

74,294

7

63,153

65,737

68,320

70,901

75,697

8

64,562

67,145

69,729

72,311

77,101

9

65,970

68,554

71,137

73,722

78,501

10

67,378

69,963

72,548

75,129

79,904

11

-

71,371

73,955

76,540

81,306

12

-

72,780

75,364

77,947

82,708

13

-

-

76,773

79,357

84,109

14

-

-

78,182

80,768

85,514

15

-

-

79,591

82,175

86,915

16

-

-

-

83,584

88,318

17

-

-

-

84,993

89,718

18

-

-

-

-

91,119

19

-

-

-

-

92,520

20

-

-

-

-

93,922

 

Here are the qualification requirements for an elementary school teacher:

Job Requirements
The following are required:

  1. A valid Alaska initial, professional, or master teaching certificate.
  2. Evidence of content knowledge shown by:
    1. a posted degree in the content area of this position; or
    2. a posted minor in the content area of this position; or
    3. passing Praxis Subject Assessments scores (formerly Praxis II) in the content area of this position; or
    4. a certificate endorsement in the content area of this position

What's required for a teaching certificate?  There's a lot of different ones listed, but here's for someone who has never taught in Alaska:

INITIAL/PROGRAM ENROLLMENT TEACHER CERTIFICATE

To qualify for an Initial/Program Enrollment teacher certificate, an applicant must meet the following requirements:

  • Has never held an Alaska teacher certificate
  • Completion of a bachelor’s degree from a regionally or nationally accredited university;
  • Offered a certified teaching position by an Alaska public school district.


I've had comments in the past that argued that having a Bachelor's degree is no guarantee that someone can do the job better than someone without one.  That requiring such a degree is elitist.   I would say that depends on the kind of job you're hiring for.  And the quality of the degree one has.  
But I would argue that a good Bachelor's degree forces one to challenge one's world view, to be exposed to alternative ways of thinking about things, to develop thinking and logic skills, and to spend time working through ethical problems.

I suspect that if qualified teachers applied for and got State Trooper positions, the quality of our state law enforcement would improve greatly.  I also think that if our teacher pay scale were to be more like the trooper pay scale, we'd have better teacher applicants.  But I would also acknowledge that there are both troopers and teachers who would apply for those positions regardless of the pay, because that's what they really want to do.  In both cases, I would hope the hiring authorities make sure that the want to pursue those careers for the right reasons.  

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