I dreamed of following in my mother’s footsteps to become a teacher. We would spend our Augusts decorating her classrooms with cheesy quotes and fun colors. During the year, she would grade assignments and share her elementary school students’ funny insights while I did my homework by her side. Then, I began to watch her arrive home more and more exhausted. Stories of funny young souls became absorbed by the stress of finishing extra online courses to get a more than deserved raise and teaching quantities of kids she could barely handle with the resources she had. The profession began to look, well, unfun.
It is no surprise to anyone who knows teachers that there is a national teaching shortage. The Department of Education defines a teaching shortage in three ways: unfilled positions, positions filled by under-qualified teachers, and positions filled by teachers in a different subject than their certification. In 2024 the estimated minimum number of teachers not fully certified for their teaching assignments is 365,044 and the minimum number of unfilled positions is 41,920
Compare this to 2022 where there were only at least 163,000 positions being held by underqualified teachers and at least 36,000 vacant positions. The extent of the shortage is frightening.
So, what are the driving forces and consequences of this shortage? According to a 2023 Harris Poll of America’s public school teachers, 74% identify students’ disciplinary and behavioral issues as the impetus of the educator deficit, while 67% attribute it to low pay. The fact that behavior is more pressing than low pay is extremely telling about the conditions in schools. It demonstrates not only the care and dedication of teachers that the well-being of their students declining is more impactful to their willingness to work than the decline in their own pay, but how these conditions impact teachers’ mental health and motivation.
Student behavior has had a significant impact on teacher retention. In the post-COVID era, student conduct has become unbearable for teachers. Behaviors such as biting, hitting, spitting, and even throwing furniture have become common in classrooms across the country. PBS conducted a study revealing some unnerving anecdotes. Kristan Nigro, a kindergarten teacher in Las Vegas shared, “In one instance, I had a student open up a pair of scissors that she took off my desk and threw them at my face.” Joanna Rizzotto, a High School Alternative Education Teacher states, “I used to say I used to worry about just a few kids. Now there — it’s the opposite. It is probably just a few kids that I am not worried about.”
This is not to say the students are wholly at fault. Students had crucial developmental years lost to the pandemic. Not only were social and emotional milestones negatively affected by the lack of socialization, but students were also having a difficult transition back into the classroom without the structure of waking up, getting ready, and arriving on time. The academic impact of these losses is troubling. In a research study conducted by Brookings, they found that in the fall semester of 2021, there was a large discrepancy in math test scores in the 3rd to 8th grades, resulting in significantly lower test scores than those in 2019 (0.20-0.27 standard deviations). This is an even more significant drop than previously recorded large-scale school disruptions like Hurricane Katrina where math scores only dropped 0.17 standard deviations.
The impact of COVID was not equal across students. A recent study by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) in California illuminates a variety of reasons as to why low-income students, students of color, and students learning English struggled more during the pandemic. These students were more likely to have suffered economically and experienced deaths in the family. They are less likely to have access to adequate technology for online school or a parent who can help them with schoolwork at home. The aforementioned Brookings study also shows that test score gaps between students in low-poverty and high-poverty elementary schools grew by 20% in math and 15% in reading during the 2020-2021 school year. This not only puts those students at a disadvantage, but it also will make it even more difficult to attract and keep teachers. Teachers will look for schools with better scores and resources, instead of taking on the additional strain of attempting to raise scores with little to no help.
The decline in the mental health of students is also a large contributing factor to students’ behavioral issues. USC’s Center for Applied Research in Education conducted a study using four groups: pre-teen boys, pre-teen girls, teen boys, and teen girls. The study found that pre-teen boys had the worst scores on mental health screening measures. They are struggling in areas such as hyperactivity, inattentiveness, and conduct problems. Teen girls had the second worst scores, but they are struggling with more internal problems like anxiety and depression. This trend started before the pandemic, but it was exacerbated by school shutdowns and social isolation. As one high school teacher reported to PBS, “We’re seeing that many students are more fearful, more wary of putting themselves out there, more anxious in general. And that anxiety can present itself in a number of different ways. It can look like unchecked anger. It can look like isolation.”
Individual student disruptions are not the only safety concern facing schools. In 2023, the U.S. saw its deadliest year as it reached a new record of 346 school shootings. This is nearly 1 shooting a day. Safety is seen as a major concern for teachers. The Harris Poll study found that “better safety in schools” was the third most popular answer to the question of what would make teachers more likely to stay in the profession. Keeping students safe was ranked number four among the major challenges facing teachers today. An astounding 84% of teachers agreed that “being a teacher feels like it becomes less and less safe by the day.”
As any basic economics class will tell you, you should increase wages when the supply of labor is lower than the demand. In 2024, the national average starting salary is $44,530, while the average teacher’s salary is $69,544. This may not look so bad until we account for inflation. When we adjust for inflation, teachers are making 5% less than they were 10 years ago. The average starting salary increased 3.9% which is the largest increase in 14 years, yet it is still $4,273 below the 2008-2009 levels. Teachers are not simply earning a low wage; they are earning less and less each year. Additionally, these numbers do not factor in the level of education required by the occupation. Public school teachers must attain at least a bachelor’s degree, but teachers are paid on average 23.5% less compared to other professionals with similar college education levels.
The teacher pay gap is not a modern phenomenon. Teaching has been consistently undervalued and underpaid because it has been seen as “women’s work.” It is hotly debated as to why teaching became feminized. Some argue it was due to the economic need for cheaper teaching labor as education in America expanded. Other scholars indicate that the societal definition of a “young woman” as submissive and moral makes them easily adopt the male-created standardized curriculum. Teaching as a profession also has a schedule easily adaptable to parenthood with free evenings and school breaks. These “mother-friendly benefits” contribute greatly to teaching’s standing as a low-prestige career. There have been attempts to decrease or eliminate the gap such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963, but these had extremely limited success.
Not only are the paid hours undervalued, but more than 17 extra hours of work that go into teaching are also disregarded. According to a Scholastic survey of 10,000 educators in all 50 states, teachers work 11-hour days, yet they are only compensated for 7.5 hours on average. What are they doing in these extra hours? Teachers are providing after-school tutoring for students, attending meetings, and collaborating with other teachers to create better education plans. This takes about 90 minutes beyond the school day. The other 95 minutes are spent grading and planning. The grand total is 17.5 unpaid hours of overtime per week.
Teachers are being asked to be teachers, psychologists, and human shields while being paid less than they deserve for any one of these jobs.
The gravity of the teaching shortage is not recognized by all. Some believe that politicians are playing up the teaching shortage to push their own agendas. Conservatives are using the teaching shortage as proof that the state school system is failing. It gives them grounds to push for lowering teaching certification standards, removing teachers’ unions, and pushing towards privatizing education. This has led to the Republican House Appropriations Committee proposing a $24.6 billion spending cut that would destroy and eliminate support for K-12 elementary schools, programs that support maternal and child health, and programs that provide access to health services and contraception. On the other hand, Democrats use the teaching shortage as proof that public schools are underfunded as they push for increasing federal funding or other government intervention. Democrats have proposed bills that would waive fees for substitute teaching licenses, increase the total days substitute teachers can work as short-term subs, and extend the number of days retired teachers can return to the classroom while receiving pension. Others say that the crisis is exaggerated and overblown. The vacancies from positions align with historical patterns and are not as severe as the public is led to believe. This narrative downplaying the crisis may prevent the implementation of either party’s solution to the problem.
Education is one of the grounding facets of our democracy, so let’s hope that we are wrong about the teaching shortage. Regardless, it is not the time to begin unraveling our democracy from the base. Civic engagement is impossible without an adequately educated citizenry. The teaching shortage will not only decrease the quality of and enthusiasm for education everywhere, but also exacerbate education inequality among marginalized communities. This is not to say there are no other problems in the education system. Censorship and political intervention are both contributing factors, but the reality is there is no education without teachers.
Featured Image: Magna Pubs
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