Another Teacher Burnout Story
Stress and demands of job don't match pay, aren't "worth it" to many teachers
I just wrote this story.
About teacher burnout.
About the demands of the job far exceeding any intrinsic or financial rewards.
And, here we go again.
This time, a piece in the Wall Street Journal highlights the persistent plight of the K-12 educator.
Low pay, yes.
But also, challenges addressing student mental health. Challenges addressing cell phone use. Challenges addressing the behavioral and mental health challenges created by cell phone use.
The share of teachers who say the stress and disappointment of the job are “worth it” has fallen to 42%, which is 21 points lower than other college-educated workers, according to a poll by Rand, a nonprofit think tank. As recently as 2018, over 70% of teachers said the stress was worth it.
That’s a pretty rapid decline - and one that has accelerated post-COVID.
Policymakers aren’t exactly rushing in with solutions, either.
States aren’t significantly increasing pay to keep up with the increasing demands.
No one is offering a new mental health landscape that addresses post-pandemic realities.
Teachers already work at a pay penalty - earning 20-30% less than other similarly-educated professionals.
Now, they have increasing stress and additional demands - and still no real boost in wages.
According to the WSJ piece, the combination of low pay and high demands has taken a toll:
Teacher exit rates reached new highs in the past two years, according to data from several states. In Texas, thousands more teachers left the classroom in 2022 and 2023 compared with the years before the pandemic.
While more teachers are leaving the field, fewer college students are lining up to replace them:
The director of teacher education at OCU has an explanation:
"More than anything, economics plays into it, right? Students don't want to take on debt into a profession that when I get a four-year degree that I'm going to have to pay loans when I barely make enough to live and that's where we are with the education profession," she said.
"The pipeline is unfortunately slowing to a trickle. We have very, very few students entering the traditional programs which is very disheartening.”
Teachers are burned out yes, but perhaps a better characterization is that they are demoralized - meaning the way they want to teach (a way that is best for kids) is made incredibly difficult to nearly impossible given the oftentimes dysfunctional system in which they are operating.
Yes! I have to say, even the 21% raise my union won couldn’t counterbalance the stress and workload of teaching. I still left the classroom.