The Burnout Equation: America’s Teacher Shortage Crisis (Part 1) | To The Point 

As an educator, the pay isn’t the biggest problem. The biggest issue in American schools are student behavior, their lack of care for their education, and the lack of parental discipline. I believe in education and academic excellence. But I cannot do my job when students, parents, and administrators are against me. That is why I am going back to school for a second Masters so I can get out of the classroom.

Reasons I left: 1. Horrendously inept administrator 2. Behavior of students 3. Behavior of teachers 4. Standardized testing 5. The real threat to my physical safety 6. Lack of work/life balance I have not missed it. I am now doing everything to keep my kids out of school. Many of my homeschooling friends are former teachers. We know too much about what’s happening in schools.

The pay alone isn't a deal breaker, but when you add to that the students are not engaged at all, and you have very little leverage to get them to stay on task. They have no mental stamina to stay focused on anything other than their phones. There's little support, and the constant battle is draining. I felt so ineffective I gave up and retired.

I quit teaching a year ago and swore off all “hero” jobs that use guilt to try to make you accept abuse and overwork. Staying in for 7 years didn’t make me better than teachers who quit earlier-it made me a SUCKER!

I was on the way out, after 23 years. Luckily, made it to our district’s continuation school. Small classes, great admin support. What a difference! Now, I’m going to teach another 4 years. Good job getting this video out-the public doesn’t realize how bad it is in public education.

Let’s redefine what they mean by “teacher shortage”. There are plenty of teachers out there that are highly qualified. There are not enough teachers willing to work in a toxic workplace where they are not supported unless it makes the admin look good. And then it is only superficial. Too many are at the top with oversized egos/oversized sense of self worth that have absolutely no empathy or respect for those who serve under them. Then there is the pay and oversized classes and expectations that round it all up into an undesirable job for anyone. Again…. There is no shortage of good teachers!

Trust me, most teachers can endure low pay as long as they have enough to get by, but misbehavior from students particularly from “those” kids is just their tipping point to quit.

Getting an education degree was the biggest waste and regret of my life. I’m close to the end and can’t wait to leave. Couple more months to go.

I retired in 2018. I sub now. Student misbehavior is HIGH. Parents do not support the teachers, but support their child in their bad behavior. Students (not all) are full of shenanigans. Those students who want to learn are struggling because of classroom disruption. I know why teachers are leaving the classrooms in groves. It won't change until we get parental support. Volunteer in the children's schools. Make your children study even if they do not have homework. Make them learn their multiplication tables by rote memorization. Support the teachers- let your child know NO SHENANIGANS AT SCHOOL AT ALL. THEY ARE THEIR TO LEARN. Give your children an education. That is the BEST GIFT YOU CAN GIVE YOUR CHILD- an EDUCATION.

The media gets it wrong ...again. The students and the classroom climate make the difference. the level of disrespect, laziness, unwillingness to do anything but sit on their phones makes it a tough job. Get the right cohort and it is a breeze.

I’m a special education teacher who is stressed to the max. Significant pay increases and smaller class sizes/special Ed caseloads would fix the majority of problems but we are not respected enough in the US for widespread policy change to happen. I have stuck with it and I sadly realized recently that I suffered years of parental abuse and neglect as a child/teen that have prepared me to withstand the abysmal working conditions of this job. I truly think that experience is why I have stayed.

What I find the most difficult is, when teaching at low income schools, you are asked to jump through hoops and hurdles to get the same scores as higher income schools!!! This is next tom impossible because; while a few studnets are motivated to learn, the majority of them only care about clothes, shoes, socializing, and Tik-Tok!!! Also, the parental involvement and experiences just aren't there. It is demoralizing when you are asked what more can you do by administration. Smaller class sizes would be great (is what I say in my head) but I know that's the only place that would happen...It was never Covid that caused teachers to leave in droves. It is unfair mandates placed on teachers who are doing the very best that they can. Teachers leave because swimming against the tide will eventually tire you out and you WILL drown and I don't know many people who want to drown of their own will.

I retired when I could no longer be the kind of teacher I wanted to be and knew I could if not for all the problems that came with the pandemic. Teaching 1st graders online was near impossible and I know of students who never checked in at all...I loved teaching, but couldn't any more...

Praise the people who can be teachers. I see so much disrespect and lack of support from parents, students, and admins I don't think I could ever be a teacher.

Hold problem students and their families accountable for the chaos they bring into the classroom!

24 years in education and I really should have left in 2020. I stayed for my students. Who would protect them from the back and forth of mask mandates? I should have left in 2021. I stayed for my students. Who would be there to help them transition back into society after so much isolation? When admin said, "Self Care" it was a slap in the face. 2022 I should have left but I love my job and the special skills I use in this one unique position. Admin called us family as a way to guilt us to do more with less. 2023: 27 Prekindergarten students in one class. I should have left. I became so ill I had to leave before the end of the year. Surgery was like a vacation because of all the stress. Imagine life altering surgery as something to look forward to in order to escape the demands on teachers in prekindergarten. I will return but my days are numbered financially it is no longer viable to teach.

And no one can figure out why we’re all leaving? If The US isn’t the most unintelligent developed country already, we soon will be. Nearly every teaching contract contains the line, “other duties as assigned.”, it means that the school can order teachers to spend nights, weekends, and vacation days doing work related tasks. Odd that as our culture’s misprioritization of education, law enforcement, and mental health has become worse the fabric of our society has started to unravel…

Young people today just don't really want to learn, parents are abusive towards teachers, and administration is weak and unsupportive. These characteristics have been in education for years. The pandemic just made it worse and brought it to the forefront. Here's an example that happened to me in 2000 as a high school teacher. Mid-term grades had just gone out and I got a visit by the school counselor. She stated she had just gotten off the phone with an angry mother who had received the notice of her "honor-student" daughter's F in my class, and wanted to know "what is wrong with that teacher." I had the students keep all of their work in a notebook, so I simply showed her this student's notebook. It was virtually empty because she was doing nothing in my class. It had the weekly grade sheets tucked into the pocket showing not only 0 after 0, but my requests to the student to see me after class so we could figure out a plan for her, which she ignored. The counselor asked if she could take the notebook as the mother was coming in for a meeting about her daughter's grade. I let her take it. She brought it back that afternoon and told me the mother would talk with her daughter and I would see a change in behavior, which did happen. In this particular instance in the end I was supported. However, the immediate response that a student's failing grade meant something was wrong with me, showed me the warped mindset parents and school administration have in this country when it comes to students. I switched from teaching high school to college in 2011 thinking I would find a system that supported and protected the learning environment. But I didn't. College students aren't out of control, they are just tuned out and care more about partying and becoming that next social media influencer than learning anything. Administration are still as inept as can be caring more about branding, image, and the revenue stream. But I also found another level of toxicity in tenured professors. They are lazy, mean, and have out of control egos. They are often stale in their own professional capacity (especially with technology), and feel insecure next to the non-tenured, harder-working faculty, so they target them with vicious gossip, the piling on of work, and the subtle yet constant message of not being worthy and knowing one's place is at the bottom. Thanks to tenured professors and their warped egos, discrimination has found a home in higher ed academia.

We have exactly the same problems in Germany happening right now. The only difference, we get payed quite well, so that isn't the problem. For us it is: Student behaviour, the behaviour of the parents as well, lack of respect from the government and the public, stress, micro-managing from the school disctrit and federal government, lack of funding, class size an the ever increasing workload. I love teaching kids, but that is roughly 30% of my job and it used to be 70% or more. These days we have to write lists upon lists, concepts upon concepts, all for the sake of documentation.

As a student, there have been countless times where students say they want to be a teacher when they grow up, and then the teachers reply with, “No you don’t. Don’t become a teacher.”

I like the guy that mentioned the windowless classrooms. I almost became a teacher but when I did observations and saw no sunlight at all it was a deal breaker. It makes me sick and it's not good for the kids.

I taught in Las Vegas, both in public schools and a charter school. The business of education has become the education business. Try 42 students in a class where at least half didn't want to be there and didn't care. I heard it first-hand: "We need more data from tests so that we can get more funding." Student behavior, parents who didn't want their children disciplined, testing just to get results (in 3rd grade--where kids had no concept of the intricacies of a computer keyboard on demand), and tests in all major subjects every week. Concerns from the administration about how the entrance wall outside my room was decorated for holidays and seasons. Even a role as a substitute computer teacher: running around to get kids logged in and then having them shut down the PC because it was a new toy for them to play on. No thanks.

After 27 years loving my job I started at a new school. The Principal told me I had to bring in a doctor's note everytime I was out because I used too many sick days the previous year(the first year back after Covid). I used the sick days that I had accumalated over the years. I was well under the National average for missed days. I fought it all the way to our central office where I was told it was within his purview. I argued that it should not be and we need to change the policy as this could push teachers out of the profession. Crickets. Sheila C. nailed some of the biggest problems in education. I would add the lack of accountability and top heavy school systems to that list. I am going to keep on teaching. I love my job. But, there are problems that need to be adressed now. Top of my list, parent and student accountability.

News Flash: Kids don't want to learn. Their cell phones are the only thing they want.

For teachers who have recently burned out and quit... Consider teaching in another country. I got certfied a decade ago and have spent the majority of that time teaching STEM courses in Chinese high schools. The respect for teachers, salary to living cost ratio, and work life balance is much better. Even students who have never had me as a teacher greet me every day. They are so friendly and respectful. An experience like this helps me to understand why the teaching shortages exist in USA but not China... It's because education starts in the home.

As a retired teacher the problem: pay. lack of benefits, medical insurance, safety, and horrible brass sending out impossible orders. Why work for people who have not been in a classroom for 20 years who tell you how to handle a problem student who threw books and broke two desks, and a window, he came back the next day as they had reached the limit allow for suspension. Then the next week brought his mother's pink 9mm, back in five days.

I love teaching but not the ridiculous expectations. I am not a psychiatrist, I am not able to create individualized lesson plans for thirty unruly students. Five students can ruin a class.

This is my 18th year in teaching and, I believe, my last. It's not even the pay anymore. It is the lack of any discipline, no consequences for students or their parents. Teachers being assualted by stuents, yes, this happens more than you would ever imagine. The expectation that teachers will take work home and stay up until the wee hours and work during their weekends. I've stopped. I put in my hours and go home. I feel terrible, sometime, because teaching and students used to bring me joy and now I just can't do it anymore. Any joy I is gone. Being a teacher is mentally and emotionally exhausting. We now have non certified teachers teaching in my school district. Substitute teachers are now classroom teachers. It's like digging your grave inch by inch by inch.

Also it’s not a race thing on how much you get paid. There is a salary schedule and depending on your education and work experience you get paid. I got the max number of units after my BA and my masters. That got my at the highest level of the pay scale and that increase with every year of full time experience. I’m brown btw. If you want to get paid more unfortunately you may have to change districts and get the education and experience needed. I worked at a district that overworked me and didn’t pay well. I got the experience and left. Now my work load is half the amount and I get paid a lot more.

Wow, once again I don't see the number 1 reason for shortage, student behavior!!!! I have 2 credentials and go to many classrooms to help out, to take over class when teacher leaves for a meeting or appointment. I observe the class while the teacher is there. The students are out of control in regular ed, loud talking and laughing, other examples.... running around the room, throwing water bottles, crawling on the floor?! why?, chewing gum, so I hear teachers shouting instructions over the din. The public has no idea how bad it is.... on my own, I call the office and they send someone who doesn't do anything at all. Wow!

I used to be a teacher for a private and for charter schools and I quit for good. Bad administrators, low wages, overwork, long hours, no life balance, disrespect by parents and administrators, standarized testing, certification process with too many hoops and money wasted. The list goes on and do not end.

I was going to go into education after graduation this spring. But after subbing during my last semester, I realized that issues with student behavior are a problem for me. You don’t realize what it is like until you’re in there and responsible for a 30 some students who are completely apathetic towards learning. All kids care about is phones and vaping in the bathroom. They call you names, they roll their eyes, they throw things and they curse. Zero respect. Toxic environment for sure. In what other job are you expected to just be abused?

Unruly, incorrigible, delinquent students should be suspended/expelled, without the school being held accountable for those students schooling while their out of school.

I work at a Montessori preschool and I am dying to quit. The building is in terrible shape, the administrators put the teachers through so much extra work to put on a good show just when the parents are around, and kids are allowed to come to school sick all the time, among other issues. As an assistant who actually cares about my job performance, I get dumped with all the work the other burnt out assistants don’t feel like doing. The lead teacher they hired two years ago was extremely inexperienced and received no support from management, so I have to take over her job sometimes when she is overwhelmed, even though I’m paid much less. We don’t get any healthcare benefits either. I love working with kids and I’ve tried to forge a career in teaching since I was in high school ten years ago. But every step I take it seems like something ruins the joy of teaching and learning and it doesn’t feel like a passion worth pursuing anymore. It’s devastating to me because I believe all children should be getting the best quality education but instead the adults caring for them hate being there every day.

"We're losing more teachers than we're getting in." Inferring it's teachers fault for leaving and teachers responsibility! Get real. It's the system.

I had always wanted to be a teacher since I was a young child. However, I went into a corporate career and volunteer tutored in local low-income schools instead. My experiences with the overall environment, some of the teachers I was assisting, and general student behavior gave me a lot of food for thought about the idea of ever having teaching be a second career…and also about how I would want my children educated.

Who's going to teach them? Their parents of course! They constantly threaten teachers: "I'll have your job." So, there they go.

I made it to 30 years but retired in 2011 before covid. I would have quit in 2020 because you cannot effectively teach handicapped children on line. When I retired I hadn’t gotten a raise in 6 years.

I’m definitely burned out. For my school , it’s the lack of playground supervisors and parent involvement. So there’s more yard duty for teachers and on top of that I have to plan fun activities since there’s less involvement with PTO. Usually I don’t get home until 5 p.m. or if there’s a school event I’m helping with, I get home at 7 p.m.

Let's not forget how the difficult parents also affect a teacher's morale. What happened to them supporting the teacher when it came to dealing with their problem children? Instead they act as entitled as their kids. I was a sub in 2000. I quit in 2003. I went back to subbing in 2013 and the pay offered was only 50 cents more than it had been 10 years earlier. Dealing with all the kids and chaos of subbing but making less than McDonald's was a no brainer. Who is going to stay? I wenr back to nursing. They know what they need to do to keep and get teachers. This isn't a new problem. And yet, instead of focusing on KEEPING the teachers they have, they're just trying to make more, faster. I have so many friends with teaching liceses who, after one year in the field, left. Most did because of pay. Because of how they hire and keep teachers. Who wants to work at a job where you basically have to apply every year until you are finally hired permanently? A job where the powers that be do not support their staff but instead cater to the problem kids with their equally problematic parents. The system is completely messed up and the government mandated changes didn't help. The people running the school board definitely do not help. And this isn't even referring to the states where teacher work 2 FULL TIME JOBS just to be able to keep teaching. The homeless teacher who years ago described her experiences in congress (? Some government place) as she begged for better pay/better benefits. This is a PROFESSION, like nursing or being a doctor. Heck, when I was an undergrad, you needed a higher GPA to get into my school'd teaching program than medical school. These are trained professionals who are treated worse than any fast food employee. If teachers were paid babysitting wages per child. For example, parents had to pay $5/hour for their kids to be watched for 8 hours (and they're getting educated at the same time.) With how big the classrooms are, some teachers would be pulling in $200/hour. In real life, many barely get that in a day. I have no sympathy for the teaching shortage. The country brought that on itself. Like nurses, the system was at the breaking point because no one wanted to make the necessary changes and the pandemic pushed it right over the edge. At least, with healthcare, nursing problems are due to corporate greed. Teacher problems are because we live in a country with a government that doesn't truly care about its children and equally uncaring about the minds that mold these children. Worse, we will all suffer eventually.when kids don't have the twaching influences we were lucky to grow up with . I honestly would not have done well in today's schools as a child. I don't see how most of the children have a chance. I bet more children have alepped through the cracks aince they implemented "No child left behind."

I started teaching in 2008. Pay was frozen for the first decade of my career. Now I am a 15 year teacher getting paid for five years of experience. I should be near the top of the pay scale, but I don't know if I will EVER make it now. Yes, I am burned out. But if I was making the $20K more that I would have been earning if I had graduated in a better economic moment, I could have paid off my student loans, had more saved for retirement, and had fewer outside concerns. Money isn't the only factor, but it is a large one.

I used to work at a daycare for a couple of years. The pay way awful , the turnover rate was high, management was bad, the parents were HORRIBLE AND RUDE. ITS NOT WORTH IT. They wonder why there’s a teacher shortage…. TREAT TEACHERS BETTER. Now, I teach overseas . It’s much better. Nobody is gonna want to teach kids if parents are rude

Toooo much required and no time to do it, behaviors, disconnected district admin, no one listens to the teachers and it just gets more stressful every year. No one could do in a single day what is demanded of teachers.

Social workers are overlooked too!! Low pay, amount of work for 3 people, little financial resources to make magic. The struggles are real in both fields!! It's ridiculous!!

Special Education teacher attrition rate is 1-3 years. Some don't finish the 1st semester. Special Education teschers are working 2 full-time jobs [1.Teaching 2.Case Management] at the price of one salary. I warn kind student teachers: Dont don't it!

Why don’t they increase the salaries

Appreciate the digital documentation and highlight on the growing problem.

No help is coming for teachers. They made that clear. Therefore, we left.

I used to teach kindergarten and I quit bc I had a student throw chairs. And that's just one of the examples bc I had a whole lot of other behavioral issues with just a few students. Additionally, my fellow colleagues were too busy themselves even though they wanted to help. Admin was actually very supportive but they had their hands tied. There were too many behavioral issues with children and this was in an elementary school. My husband and I aim to put our child in private school OR homeschool/ hybrid homeschooling at a private Christian school.

This phenomenon is a combination of things that have been simmering on the stove for a very long time, and precipitated into a general problem by a number of current trends in the public schools. I will not list the factors that have pretty much always been around, such as the low pay and “open-ended” contracts that extend teacher duties well beyond the normal school day. Concerning these, suffice to say that merely bumping up teacher pay is unlikely to stop the “burnout” phenomenon described in this video. I taught for over 30 years with that pay and benefits, but I didn’t burn out, so what’s changed in the nearly 22 years since I hung up the chalk? Two things are glaringly obvious: 1. Lack of support for teachers from parents and the community at large, coupled with an increase in expectations. These things determine the attitudes and policies of school boards and school administrators, who are politically lined up with the parents to dump a seemingly endless laundry list of demands on the teacher. 2. Increasing numbers of students have become unteachable, a fact which is blithely ignored by parents, school boards, and administrators. 3. Results tend to be myopically interpreted as standardized test scores, while the push at the classroom level is to somehow manage the students’ psychological and social problems. The fact that these things just don’t go together is ignored, and the result is frothing at the mouth over low scores on bubble tests. QED.

In Oregon a few districts held up negotiations with unions for a year! Then offered 3% and less- basically a pay cut. They wore down the union members and they gave in to the districts strong arm tactics.

It's not only pay and workload. It's also the trendy new theories that time has shown don't work. Restorative Practice is one such theory. Don't discipline, have a restorative chat. All very well in theory but in practice, the generation of undisciplined kids lie. "What did you do?" "Nothing". "Who did you harm by what you did?" "No-one". So they get away with inappropriate behaviour while the theorists preach about to run a classroom with no discipline and the teachers are too often the victims of bad behaviour.

Part of the problem is standardized testing locks you into the approved curriculum. A large number of students lack prerequisite skills, but the teachers are locked into the approved curriculum and are not allowed to spend class time on the missing skills that students theoretically should have mastered in prior years.

Stop calling it BURNOUT... it's not burnout, if it is : 1.Low wages: wages because teachers salaries are joke in USA. They are building future generations and they get paid pennies for everything they bear and do. 2. Stress of just going to scjool: teachers have to worry about shooting, getting hit and hurt by students, by student parents, abuse and lies from the board. 3. The disrespect : the disrespect towards teachers is astonishing and astronomical. 4. Paying out of pocket for school supplies. It should be isd and parents responsibility. 5. Long working hours with almost no overtime and career progression is SLOW. it takes a life time. 6. Then there is no work life balance. Teachers don't get time with families. 7. Lastly, there are many predatory teachers that have damaged credibility of good teachers. Hence, system is almost in status quo. Why would anyone want a job where there is a low wage, no security, constant disrespect, stress and no career progression. At least be truthful. In India teaching job is coveted, it is respected, paid well. Every 5 year salary increment and bonuses, medicals and student-parebt respect teachers.

Thank you for this needed video! James Deagle

Children need to make sure they learn their multiplication tables by rote memorization for Math. You need knowledge of multiplication for all math over 3rd grade.

Putting the worst people in the same room as everybody else. And expect nothing bad to happen. There's no point in calling yourself "ethical." If you're going to keep giving leeway to people who aren't.

The politicians told the people we were bad. The people listened.

Compared to peers with the same level of education, teacher pay is low. Everyone thinks they know what it means to be a teacher. People are clueless. Teachers are literally exploited. As an EC teacher, I am responsible for writing actual legal documents and if I, not a trained lawyer, mess up I can be sued and lose my teaching license All the while developing my own lessons and teaching classes. I am also required to be certified as a regular education teacher as well as a special education teacher. I am expected to work nights, and weekends and, to volunteer my time for student activities. I am expected to supervise students after school, grade assignments, and attend mandatory meetings....all with no pay. Just ask a dentist to do an extraction on Sunday night and the expectation is to do it free. I am expected to provide counseling and social-emotional lessons because a substantial number of parents don't parent it seems. Also the behavior...the kids are so violent that it is often terrifying to walk into the school building in the morning. I had a parent literally make a complaint to the school because I do not offer after-school tutoring for free. When I stated that I did not tutor, she went all Karen on me. People, just because I am a teacher does not mean you can treat me like something you stepped in. I am loving and caring but I am not going to work for free anymore.

Teachers and cops. I'm grateful anyone wants to do those jobs.

The ability to read with critical thinking is tantamount to any good education. Perhaps the answer lies in books and small study and discussion groups. Reading and writing essays and explaining your ideas is the foundation for success. The Classics are still the Classics. If you want to be smart that is where it starts.

a big part of the problem too is, we now have people who have mental health and severe emotional/behavior disorders in mainstream schools and classes, when in reality they need to be in a special program, not shoved into regular schools and classes ! food for thought, as we know, so many people think they need to bring back corporal punishment, i disagree, because we have many countries who outlawed that completely: Sweden, Finland, Holland, Cyprus, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, and more: they do not use physical punishment, not parents, or teachers; and yet the students/ youth, and adults for that matter are much better behaved than they are as a whole here in the US. over all crime rates and jail / prison population is much much lower, violence and other crime is much lower than it is here. school performance(grades, attendance), is much higher than here. I think we need to research what they are doing to make things more effective . these students as well as adult need more stability, they need positive stimulation and yes they do need t be held accountable. do the research, look it up: yes, these countries and more do not use any corporal punishment and they do not have the problems we are having here.

Without respect there is no learning.

And now some states including Arizona and Idaho are allowing high school grads become teachers rather than pay them a better wage.

I was with this until it made race the issue. Pay isn’t the main problem. It’s student behavior and lack of parental support. We need parents to be active participants in the learning process. Parents need to stop treating the schools as a baby sitting service.

Minority educators likely are newer to the field. No way are school districts going to pay minority educators less than what they are due on the published, across-the-board, teacher pay scales. Everybody gets the pay on the scale where they land based on education and years of experience. With less years in the field across the board, average pay would be less. It is triggering and dishonest to make it sound like minority educators are getting paid less because of race. Also...coaches get called in to help with difficult students on their teams...the art teacher gets called in to help with the sensitive artist...the band teacher gets called in to help with the band kids running amok...so... I will agree that a particular minority teacher should not be called in to help over and over, but...did he have rapport with those specific students? The media REFUSES to discuss the REAL reason teachers are leaving. Students are allowed to act however they like, supported both by their parents and admin. Kids won't put their phones down. Teachers have to dishonor their own rules to please kids and parents (like admin making you let a kid take the SAME test over and over again until they get an A, apologizing to the student who trashed your room and stole from you, being tased by a student in the hallway, being beaten up by SpEd students, having a desk thrown at you, cleaning up excrement from the student who just poops wherever...these were just things at my own school I knew about). Society has no respect for teachers. There's the reason.

Everything these people said is 100% correct. I was a middle and high school teacher for about 10 years. I have a bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters degree in Technology Education. If I had to weigh a career choice again: I would rather shovel horse manure for living then set a foot in a public school!

The low number of views on every news episode about teacher burnout and the teacher exodus shows me how little the public care. That demoralizing fact is something teachers feel deeply every single day. It is the glue that holds together all the reasons we're leaving the field. I'm one of 15 leaving an elementary school in an affluent, well funded area. Many of us are classroom teachers or highly effective instructional aides. Meanwhile, it'll take double that number of people leaving before parents even care enough to respond to this reality. We already have too few teachers of color in our schools. Our students aren't represented. This is going to be catastrophic with an impact that lasts beyond this generation of students.

comparing averages is very unrevealing.

Newsflash: Technology does not lead to less work for teachers. It increases their workload!

66k in nyc...is basically poverty

Who could blame them 😞

Work in sp'ed with the developmentally delayed, or do adult ed. The students actually care and try, and there's lots of money and reasonable class sizes.

Good job teachers. You all need to quit. The government doesn't pay you enough. Also the school and parents don't give any of the kid's any consequences. The children run the schools.

These issues were going on long before the pandemic and teachers have been feeling the pressure for well over a decade.

Nobody seems to want to talk about the out of control OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING for k-12 teachers in this country when discussing teacher shortages. I'm the author of EIGHT DAYS IN AN INNER CITY SCHOOL

Has anyone ever thought about what is going to happen when NOBODY SHOWS UP!

I do know a qualified teacher who cannot get thru the online application system. And she is young and computer literate.

Suburbs and Rural are not hiring for several years now. Those teachers who are quitting with lots of experience are the first to be hired when openings do occur. This is bad news for new graduates. The teacher's Unions are to blame meaning the teachers who got greedy over the past 20 years are responsible for much of this.

It’s now too late to save the traditional model of public education. Since no one wants to pay degreed teachers adequately the teacher’s job needs to be automated out of existence, especially since everyone expects teachers to consent to being abused. The only affordable new model will have to be brick and mortar online academy supervised by youth leaders who specialize in crowd control augmented by tutors who are required to have perhaps two years of college. Since nobody wants to pay for anything better this will have to do. But it needs to be kept in mind that two thirds of the kids aren’t really even bright enough for traditional academic high school. A much higher percentage of the kids will need to start transitioning into trades training between the ages of fourteen and sixteen or they’ll end up unemployable except as minimum wage retail and service workers. College has become unaffordable. Most people really need to forget about college. The current crisis was largely caused by the misdirected attempt to push everyone into college, a fool’s errand considering that the average adult with an IQ of 100, or average intelligence, typically only has a sixth grade reading level. What sort of a degree do people really expect such types to get? Typically they could pull off a brief community college program in something like phlebotomy or perhaps peace officer’s academy to get a part time job writing speeding tickets in some rural township that doesn’t have its own police academy. Then they’re done. Try reading IN THE BASEMENT OF THE IVORY TOWER by Professor X.

The pandemic only made the dam break fully. And they still don't care. Because no one wants to tell the public that being berated, interrupted, and disrespected by students is the biggest issue in the classroom and needs to be stopped. If a child is allowed to make the decision and express the decision that they don't like school but have no alternative solution or job this is entitlement and wasting valuable teacher resources.

Low pay? Not. Savage kids? Absolutely

There are other countries with better teaching opportunities. Relocation is the best option.

Schools need to teach English, science, math, history, and fine arts. Everything else needs to be dropped. Phones should be, turned off and placed in a holding area at the beginning of each class.

Talk about nurse burnout too!

Throw all the trash curriculums away and allow teachers to curate curriculum again. School is not about "unpacking standards". It's about learning what it means to be a human being. Until we can agree on that it won't get better. This is the root of the problem.

I mean American society does not value education or educators. Its an easy fix but no one cares enough to make a change. Take 10% of what we spend on the military and give it to education instead. If new teachers were making 6 figures after college then people would be interested in joining the profession. As it stands its like trucking, its dying so if you're trying to start a career it doesn't really make sense. At some point they'll get AI teaching figured out and that'll be it, all kids will get amazing quality educations and the teachers will be freed up to do work that's more economically viable.

You have a capitalist system, so why aren't the laws of supply and demand I was taught back in high school economics applied. If supply is scarce, shouldn't the cost of that supply rise to attract greater supply? Mind you, it takes 6 years to train a teacher... 4 years uni plus 2 years on the job before you're any good. means you have to start training a teacher 7 years ago - A bit like planting a tree, where you plant trees 20 years before you need them (longer for hardwoods).

Quit blaming the pandemic. It’s the students’ behaviors which has been brewing longer than the pandemic.

Engaging "Lesson Plans "???...Code for "entertain the students "...Not really educate.

The teaching profession took a hit when Yuppies came along. Men and women with law degrees and MBA s made $$$in the 80s . Young people were attracted to that income and lifestyle and did not consider education a desirable career.

Public education days are numbered

I've been watching a lot of teacher burn out vids in the last few days. Yes, low pay, over work and horrible administration are at fault, but the real problem is in the "home": poor or non-existent parenting, with non-existent discipline of children in or out of the classroom. Of course teachers need to get paid better and I'm all for it. But: more money, more competent admin won't fix the problem, and more touchy-feely social science jargon is not going to fix the problem. Honestly I don't see any solution, and the future of this country looks grim. There you have it; sorry.

I hate teaching. The students abuse us. The pay isn't good. We're not respected in society as professionals. I wish I could quit, but I can't. Don't go into teaching.

For years Public Schools wanted fewer students per class (Union push). Now, with all the COVID giveaway $$$ running out (or stolen) Public Schools stopped hiring (replacing) so the class sizes grew. Now, teachers use to 20 students per class now struggle with 35 per class. Are they spoiled, perhaps, anyone would be.

😢

When you start endorsing human values !

Everybody is having a hard time. Our President said he was going to make America last and he has succeeded. Do teachers think our elections are honest? Good-- voters rejected baseless demands to fund schools. Prop 15 failed in 2020 in Calif. Three school funding measures lost after the 2019 teachers strike in LA. CalSTRS is $100 billion in debt.

Trump is not a teacher 😂 Nor does he care about having people be smarter than him. If you want to have women's control of their own bodies and even better a President who has a wife as a former teacher. You may consider not voting red rather vote blue or Independent candidates. Maybe Ted Cruz or Gavin Newsome can be your teachers.

that is some rack