What pushes teachers in the US to leave the classroom?

The school year in the United States is about to end and with the end of the year, there are thousands of teachers who already have a different work plan for after the summer, when they would have to return to the classroom. The flight of teachers from schools is a silent problem on a national scale that complicates the educational system and that seems to become more accentuated every day.

For 26 years, the professor of Salvadoran origin Félix Herrera forged a career as a teacher in northern Virginia, next to Washington. In conversation with the voice of america reviews the changes that have taken place in the classroom in recent decades that -from his point of view- push teachers to seek another career.

Herrera says that society in general has “taken advantage of the kindness of teachers” because of the fact that those who dedicate themselves to that career do so out of a vocation to serve and driven by the “interest in giving”, but that compared to other professions are not remunerated with a fair salary for sacrifice.

“Teachers in general are paid on average below the pay of other professionals. We have ended up -as a union- in a situation in the United States and other parts of the world where the teacher is poorly paid and their work is not rewarded”, considers Herrera.

The data of the National Education Association (NEA) for this 2023 indicate that the median salary range for teachers in the US is $66,745; those amounts do not include tax and insurance discounts.

From Los Angeles, Professor Randy Jurado tells the VOA It cannot be forgotten that in the US, to achieve any university education -including teaching- one resorts to student loans and when starting work, the professional carries a debt of over $50,000 on average.

Although in Latin America these figures might seem high, when compared with the cost of living, exacerbated by inflation and especially by the high price of housing in American cities -for April of this year, according to the specialized center US Newsa family pays about $1,976 a month for housing – wages shrink for any worker.

The states that pay teachers the least are Florida, Mississippi and South Dakota, and those that pay the best are California, Massachusetts and New York, with averages above $85,000.

Problems that encourage teacher flight

Added to the salary issue are other factors in society that discourage teachers from continuing in the classroom, because more and more, with new technologies and other collateral behaviors, “ungovernability” reaches the classroom and for teachers it is a lot more complicated to manage groups of students, says Herrera.

The increasingly frequent news of acts of violence in schools, such as shootings or students who come to the classroom with weapons, also sneak into the concerns of teachers.

“It is difficult to be in that current work environment, because of the violence, the lack of respect, the little pay; Obviously there aren’t many people who want to be in those conditions,” said Herrera, who today works as a teacher advisor for private schools.

Professor Henry Salinas, who has a 20-year career between Northern Virginia and Washington, and grew up and studied in schools in the Washington area, that in his time “it was unheard of to think of treating a teacher with certain bad words, today that’s normal,” he said about the direct insults teachers receive from students.

The situation is complicated because the rules of discipline with calls to parents in the vast majority of cases do not take effect, he said. “For parents, their children are always perfect”, they withdraw to defend their children, with which the teacher loses the neutrality that once allowed him to rule the room, he added.

Other studies of an approach to the problem point to a combination of factors that lead to “teacher exhaustion” that was accentuated during the pandemic and the general feeling that “there is little respect” around them.

Unlike Latin American countries, where educational systems are centralized by the Ministry of Education, in the US schools are organized by school districts run by local governments and under state laws, which in turn receive federal funds based on the number of population of the Census of population and other weights.

A investigation of The Washington Post found that initiatives in many school districts to restrict the content or ways teachers can discuss certain topics such as racism, gender, and sexual orientation discourage teachers.

Some of these initiatives define in detail what can or cannot be taught in the classroom, or how to address historical and current issues, which complicate the outlook for teachers, said a teacher who began teaching this year and asked not to reveal your identity. She said that she worries “being able to cope with those current demands” in the classroom.

Lynn Gangone, president of the American Association of Universities for Teacher Education (AACTE), believes that this type of initiative “is not helping” in the face of the growing problem of teacher flight.

The AACTE estimates that more than 17 million students have had their learning affected by seeing “restricted” approaches to race or gender issues.

Falling enrollment in teacher training

The massive flight of teachers does not encourage the hope of reinforcing the staff with newly graduated teachers willing to teach. On the contrary, university teacher training centers are also registering low enrollments.

Lynn Gangone, AACTE President, has alerted that the situation in education is heading to a critical point.

“Given the scope and scale of the teacher shortage, we must evaluate all current and new opportunities based on whether they will help increase enrollment in educator preparation programs (…) The association’s strategic priorities will not change, we will emphasize in the short term to address the shortage of teachers, understanding that by doing it carefully we can advance our priorities”, he considers in his work plan for this year.

AACTE research indicates that 20% of higher education institutions have seen student enrollments for teaching decline by at least 11%, and 13% reported “very significant” declines in the number of new students.

“I don’t know how bad it will have to get before we realize as a country that if we don’t invest in education, we won’t have anyone in the classroom to teach our children,” Gangone said.

In good news amid the gloomy outlook, Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College has seen an increase in student enrollment for teacher preparation by launching a state-funded scholarship program since 2017 that allows Young teacher graduates start their working lives debt-free if they commit to teaching in Arizona schools for a certain amount of time.

This modality has also been put into practice at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, which offers financial support if students sign a contract to work in state schools for at least four years.

fighting fronts

An eventual achievement of a significant salary increase by teachers in California, and a legal battle in Florida offer insight into the state of the US teaching industry, which begins the summer break in a few days.

In Los Angeles, Professor Randy Jurado told the voice of america who end the school year with high hopes for a historic achievement won just a few weeks ago to get a 21% pay increase under a commitment to the city to meet it in three years.

Jurado emphasizes that the main problem in the flight of teachers is that the system is stagnant, and to reach a high salary scale one needs to work 20 or 30 years, which makes it difficult to recruit new teachers to cover the growing output.

“You start with 50,000 and something. It is unfair because I would have to dedicate 20 or 30 years” to reach a higher income scale, said Jurado. “That starting salary is barely enough to pay the rent and not to mention wanting to buy a house, it is the reason why many people do not want to continue,” he said.

This professor shows the documents that the Teachers Union, which brings together more than 34,000 educators, achieved in an “arduous negotiation” under mediation, with the threat of a general strike, before the end of this year or at the beginning of the next course.

The salary ranges would go from 69,000 to 122,000 dollars a year, if the agreement reached by the Los Angeles Teachers Union is reached.

“It has been an important fight, because we joined with other unions to achieve it,” said Jurado, who hopes this will be an encouragement to continue in the class, because many teachers go to work in other sectors “where they make sacrifices, but receive a Good payment”.

In contrast, in Florida, the state that appears on the lowest pay list for teachers, the Federal Education Association (FEA) and three affiliated unions filed a federal lawsuit last week against Senate Bill (SB) 256. , enacted by Governor Ron DeSantis, alleging unconstitutionality and violation of the First Amendment because the new Pay Protection law, approved by the conservative bloc, would restrict teachers’ right to express their opinion and group to fight for wage claims.

According to the plaintiffs, Florida’s new body of law precludes “contract rights” from active contracts previously negotiated with universities and school districts under collective bargaining agreements.

“We as educators in Florida exercise our constitutional rights and for doing so face political retaliation from the Governor of this great State,” said FEA President Andrew Spar.

Gov. DeSantis said on social media that the Act protects teachers from unions. “Florida teachers will be able to choose how their hard-earned money is spent. School unions will no longer be able to hold teachers’ paychecks hostage with veiled threats while hiding where the money is going,” he said.

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