Ongoing and growing staff shortages in public schools are worsening teacher burnout and may drive “an alarming number” of educators to leave the profession, a new union survey warned Tuesday.
Some 55% of the educators polled said that they were ready to leave “the profession they love earlier than planned,” according to the latest National Education Association member survey.
Across the nation and throughout the pandemic, teachers have been partnerning with families and communities to propel students through COVID’s many challenges. But due to shortages in every K-12 job category, many teachers are now exhausted by one of “the hardest school years in memory,” National Education Association President Becky Pringle said in a statement. “This crisis is preventing educators from giving their students the one-on-one attention they need,” Pringle said. “It is forcing them to give up their class planning and lunchtime to fill in for colleagues who are out due to COVID. And it is preventing students from getting the mental health supports needed.”
Pre-pandemic shortages in hard-to-staff subjects such as math, science, special education and bilingual education have over the last two years spread to positions such as bus drivers, school nurses and food service workers. There are now 567,000 fewer educators in America’s public schools than there were before the pandemic. Also, the ratio of hires to job openings in the education sector had dropped to a new low of 0.57 hires for every open position, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has found.
Nearly all the teachers polled report that their schools remained fully open for in-person learning throughout the omicron surge, with some NEA members reporting that up to a quarter of their school’s staff or students were out due to COVID.
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Of those whose schools closed, many said it was because of teacher and substitute shortages due to COVID-19 exposure, with a little less half blamed shutdowns on too many students being absent due to exposure.“For all they do for our communities, educators need and deserve our collective respect,” Pringle said. “That means paying educators like the professionals they are, ensuring that their students can get the mental health support they need, protecting them from COVID, and addressing the staff shortages so our educators can do what they do best—helping every student thrive.”
The survey, conducted Jan. 14-24, also showed:
1. Schools are short-staffed:
- 74% of NEA members said they’ve had to fill in for colleagues or take other duties due to staff shortages.
- 80% report that unfilled job openings have led to more work obligations for the educators who remain.
2. Educators are burned out:
- 90% of members say feeling burned out is a serious problem (67% very serious).
- To address educator burnout, raising educator salaries receives the strongest support (96%), followed by providing additional mental health support for students (94%), hiring more teachers (93%), hiring more support staff (92%), and less paperwork (90%).
- 91% say that pandemic-related stress is a serious problem for educators.
3. Schools are facing an exodus if no actions are taken:
- More than half (55%) of members plan to leave education sooner than planned because of the pandemic, a significant increase from 37% in August.
- This is even higher among Black (62%) and Hispanic/Latino (59%) educators, who are already underrepresented in the teaching profession.
- This is true for educators regardless of age or years of teaching. 56% of educators under 50 years old and 54% of educators 50 and older say this. And 50% of educators with 10 or fewer years in the profession, 58% of educators with 11-20 years, and 57% of educators with 21 years or more say they are likely to leave before they have planned.
- 86% of members say they have seen more educators leaving the profession or retiring early since the start of the pandemic.
4. Uneven safety strategies
- 95% of members support improved ventilation in schools. but only 38% reported having improved ventilation in their schools and only 28% feel their school’s ventilation system provides them with enough protection.
- And not all schools are maintained equally: In schools serving mostly Black, Brown, and economically disadvantaged students, only 21% of educators believed their schools had adequate ventilation.
- 35% of educators say mask and mitigation policies have been eased since the beginning of the school year amidst a rise in cases among young adults and children.
