A ’staggering’ 30,000 teachers in Oklahoma have left the profession in the past 6 years. Here’s why. - The Washington Post
A ’staggering’ 30,000 teachers in Oklahoma have left the profession in the past 6 years. Here’s why.
Oklahoma’s schools superintendent
described it as “staggering,” and it is: A new report says that 30,000 teachers in the state have quit the profession over the past six years — and about half did it because of low pay, little respect and other reasons that made the job too hard or unattractive.
The
state Department of Education’s 2018 report on educator supply and demand underscores the reasons that teachers throughout the state went on strike last year to protest inadequate school funding and pay so low that many had to take several jobs to pay their bills. That strike, which ended with a pay raise, was part of a wave of walkouts in Republican-led states dubbed the “Red For Ed” movement, which continued and spread to Democratic-led states this year.
The exodus of teachers,
the Department of Education said in a release, “represents an average of 10 percent of Oklahoma’s teacher workforce, in comparison to a national attrition rate of 7.7 percent.” State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister was quoted as saying:
Steep budget cuts over the last decade have made the teaching profession in Oklahoma less attractive, resulting in a severe teacher shortage crisis and negative consequences for our schoolchildren. The loss of 30,000 educators over the past six years is staggering — and proof that our schools must have the resources to support a growing number of students with an increasing number of needs.
While the report focuses on Oklahoma, it highlights problems teachers face throughout the country. States have been reporting increasing teacher shortages (see the map below with state-by-state information), and surveys have found in recent years plummeting morale among public school teachers who feel they have been blamed by policymakers for low student achievement and who work in schools with a desperate need for more resources.
The report says:
Oklahoma’s public school system has suffered one of the largest national budget cuts over the past decade. As a result, steep reductions to school budgets have forced administrators to implement strategies to reduce expenses, many of which critically hinder instruction and unequivocally contribute to making the teaching profession less attractive.
