The Great American Teacher Exodus
Chronic disinvestment in public education, a corporate reform model that punishes student poverty, and the pandemic’s disruption of school life are making it impossible for teachers to do the job they love. Many educators are reaching their breaking points.
Low pay and grueling conditions are causing public school teachers to leave the profession at an alarming rate. (NeONBRAND / Unsplash)
This school year has been marked by a flood of reports of dire school staffing shortages, including stories about schools shutting down because there are simply not enough adults in the building to keep kids safe. The seemingly ubiquitous theme of educators resigning mid-year has even become its own TikTok genre.
Kristin Colucci, who teaches English in Lawrence Public Schools in Massachusetts, described the situation at her high school to Jacobin: “One teacher quit, another retired, and there have been no teachers assigned to those classes. Students are literally sitting there by themselves. The message being sent: the class and the students are not worthy of this education.”
Edu-conomists who warn against teacher pay increases like to point out that shortages are district-specific and that overall teacher turnover may actually be lower right now than in recent years. That’s not saying much.
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