Teacher Shortages Have Become Our "Return to Normal"

Photo by Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash

Have you seen the news articles? Teacher shortages are rampant in the United States. Incentives like eliminating certification requirements, signing bonuses, and even a campaign to encourage teachers from overseas are now the norm.

Perhaps schools and districts imagined a different return to normal post-pandemic. Thinking the virus constraints would permit us all to instruct in classrooms like we have always done, many of the problems of the profession were ignored. And now, schools are paying the price.

In my research and reading, I have seen no institution collecting data on the mass teacher exit from the profession. I am not finding a lot of solutions to the problem being discussed. It seems leaders are focusing on Band-Aid solutions.

Yet, this problem is not going away. 

Teachers are leaving the profession for good. And, very few young people are entering the profession due to the lack of benefits. 

I created a simple survey and am sharing to educators on LinkedIn. Thus far, I have a small sample size of 94 responses. Yet, over 90% of those surveyed are considering leaving the profession or have already left. 

Where does this leave our students? Where does this leave our schools? Where does this leave our future? 

It’s time we begin to rethink the profession.

For the foreseeable future, I will be writing about methods, systems, and suggestions for doing just that. From reshaping our schedules to providing sabbaticals to considering the role of the teacher in the AI era, I’ll be diving deep into solutions focused on improving the profession.

We have to solve this problem. Society depends on it.