More teachers nationwide are unsatisfied with their jobs and more are likely to leave the profession, according to the MetLife Survey of the American Teacher.

The survey, which was released this month, reports that one of the “most dramatic findings” was that teachers have the lowest level of job satisfaction in more than two decades and there was a large increase in the number of teachers who are likely to leave the teaching profession.

However, the sheer number of applicants for teaching jobs in Michigan casts question on just how miserable a profession teaching can be.

For example, Davison Community Schools recently posted an opening for an elementary school teacher. Michelle Lee, director of public information for the district, said the district received 120 applications for the position.

Ionia Public Schools recently posted an opening for a high school math teacher. Ben Kirby, associate superintendent at the district, said the district received 28 applications for the job.

Last fall, Chippewa Valley posted 21 potential teaching positions and received 2,211 applications, said Diane Blain, spokeswoman for the district.

“If the teaching profession is so terrible, why are there dozens, hundreds and sometimes thousands of applications for each open position?” said Michael Van Beek, education policy director for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, in an email.

Van Beek also questions the effectiveness of teacher unions, which he says are responsible for the workplace conditions of teachers that led to such dissatisfaction.

“The fact that a large percentage of teachers say they are going to leave the profession within a certain number of years should be the fault of the unions,” Van Beek said. “They’re the ones that mandate all teachers get paid exactly the same (and for some of them, this means getting paid less than what they would otherwise) and the unions are the ones negotiating working conditions. If anything, this survey is a signal that the teachers unions are failing their members.”

For example, teachers’ contracts in Michigan base salaries on seniority and level of education.

The leads to situations like what happened in Troy Public Schools, where seven gym teachers earned more money than a biology teacher who was selected as a national teacher of the year.

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow was named “Porker of the Month” for March by a national tax watchdog organization for proposing to extend federal subsidies for green energy.

Citizens Against Government Waste tabbed Sen. Stabenow, a Lansing Democrat, because she proposed an amendment to the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21^st Century Act, that would have “extended federal subsidies for green energy, including alternative fueling stations, biofuels, refined coal, energy-efficient appliances, and wind power, among others,” according to a CAGW press release.

The CAGW stated that many of the extensions Stabenow proposed were tied to the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or better known as the stimulus.

Stabenow’s amendment was defeated March 13.

“When the stimulus originally passed, one of the biggest concerns, beyond its exorbitant initial cost, was that supposedly temporary programs would become permanent and waste taxpayer dollars in perpetuity,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz in a press release. “Sen. Stabenow has demonstrated that those fears were not unfounded. The past six months have been marred by examples of the futility of picking winners in energy markets, which already have access to private capital. Failures at Solyndra, Ener1, Beacon, Tesla, Amonix, Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt, SunPower, and others make it obvious that the government has about as much chance of stumbling across a four-leaf clover as it does of being successful as a venture capitalist. Not only should these programs not be extended, they should be terminated.”

Paul Chesser, an associate fellow at the National Legal & Policy Center, said subsidies and tax credits for specific businesses that are not made available for all businesses are a bad idea.

“The free market is always a better decider than government of what businesses are worthy of survival or thriving, or which ones fail,” Chesser wrote in an email. “The subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles are just propping up businesses that would fail without them, and as we are seeing now, many are failing even with the subsidies.”

Sen. Stabenow’s office didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.