Teachers are picking up for absent colleagues. They are covering up unfilled positions. And 55% of them say they will leave teaching jobs sooner than originally planned, according to a poll of members of the nation’s largest teachers association.
The National Education Association poll, conducted in January, helps determine how much stress is being placed on educators right now – and finds how many say they will leave the profession sooner. has increased significantly since August. Among the other findings of the NEA poll were:
- 90% of members say feeling burned out is a serious problem.
- 86% say they have seen more educators leave the profession or retire earlier since the pandemic began.
- 80% reported that unfilled job openings caused the rest to take on more work obligations
“Last summer, I started traveling around the country,” Becky Pringle, president of the NEA, which has nearly 3 million members, said of the motivation for the survey. “Without exception, every stop of mine, from Kentucky to Oakland, I hear the same stories of exhausted, overwhelmed educators, feeling unloved, disrespected.”
The poll found a racial gap in discontent: 62% of Black teachers and 59% of Hispanic teachers said they would leave sooner than planned, compared with 55% overall. But the desire to leave the teaching profession is similar to that of rookies, intermediate educators, and those nearing retirement.
“Our morning emails each day start with a blank slate,” says Amber McCoy, a 4th grade NEA member in Huntington, W. Va.[It] will let us know where we have staff shortages in the building and [ask] we participate in any way or at any time that we may. ”
Not many 20-year veterans like her and many young teachers are leaving or considering leaving, she said.
“This is not what they bargained for,” McCoy said. “I also mentor new teachers in my district and one of the girls was doing some clinical work in my classroom, and she called me and she just said, ‘I cry every day. Is the after-school day normal?” And I said, “Honey, it’s not normal. But this year it’s not uncommon.” “
Of course, saying you’re thinking about leaving, or reporting the perception that others are leaving, isn’t the same as actually making the announcement. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says there are now 567,000 fewer educators in US public schools than there were before the pandemic. And NEA data shows that 43% of the jobs posted are not filled.
When it comes to solutions, the NEA says money is the most important thing on the minds of its members. They are in favor of raising wages and hiring more people. Pringle said the union was amplifying the Biden administration’s message that the money from the US Rescue Plan — $122 billion in federal aid to K-12 schools — could and should be used to improve wages. and create new locations.
“We have been asked for assistance [U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona] to really promote this part of the use of those funds,” Pringle said, “because some school districts have been a bit sensitive about using them to hire staff. “
A major reason for that, she explains, is that the extra money goes down within three years, while hiring someone or giving them a raise is an indefinite financial commitment.
Still, even if the funding is temporary, Pringle argues, it’s needed now.
