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The Gap between Teachers pay and Inflation

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The Gap between Teachers pay and Inflation

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This shows how 2003-2004 was the starting point before inflation grew, as it is equal with the pay. Over time the gap between pay and inflation started to widen and in 2023-2024 it shows a $10,000 difference. Starting teacher salaries haven't risen fast enough to match and keep up with inflation. Teachers not being paid enough plays a huge role into why shortages and strikes are happening.

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Administration Adding to Teacher Burnout 

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Administration Adding to Teacher Burnout 

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This article explains teacher burnout as demoralization. Meaning how the systemic issues of administrative support, excessive workload, toxic policy demands, and disrespect from families seem to be the root cause of teachers exhaustion. The teachers express how they don't get treated with respect from their administrators, and how they are underpayed and undervalued; this connects to the youtube video of teachers complaining about the lack of support from them. The article explains how administration often sides with the parents rather than teachers when a problem arises. How they micromanage teachers and pile on new ways to teach, strict rules, and evaluations which takes away the freedom of teachers to get creative with their teaching. It also explains how the administrators often puts extra duties onto teachers and expects them to fulfill them with no additional pay. Overall, it just emphasizes how administrators don't treat the teachers well and don't advocate for them. This has a major effect on teachers and is one of the main causes for burnout, strikes, and shortages.

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Stress and exhaustion is pushing too many out of the profession, but it's not up to educators to find better ways to "cope." The responsibility to improve working conditions lies with those lawmakers and officials who dictate what a teacher's day looks like.

Key Takeaways

1. Many school districts are still struggling with staff shortages and more educators are feeling burned out and demoralized.

2. Higher pay always helps with teacher retention, but improving working conditions-student behavior especially-has moved to the forefront of educators' concerns.

3. Lawmakers have not done enough to alleviate the crushing workload and undue stress that is pushing too many teachers out of the profession. Educators and their unions are working to change that.

Joe Holloway remembers when, not too long ago, public school educators were regarded as heroes.

Soon after in-person learning resumed, the national conversation around schools and educators turned bleak, polluted by "culture war" propaganda and anti-public education rhetoric that has only intensified over the past few months. School districts have been destabilized by severe staff shortages and more educators are considered leaving.

Meanwhile, says Holloway, "more and more has been asked of us. it doesn't seem to stop."

Higher salaries will always be a top priority , but better pay can't completely reduce the elevated levels of stress and anxiety that has plagued the teaching profession over the past decade, if not longer. The pressure of the job and the impact it has been having on educators and students hasn't been adequately acknowledged, let alone addressed.

That's why Holloway joined other members of the Connecticut Education Association (CEA) and elected officials at a press conference last November to spotlight educator burnout. They urged state lawmakers to step up and allocate sufficient funding to mitigate the factors that are pushing educators to exhaustion, hopelessness, and an early exit from the profession.

"Teaching has become mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting," says Elsa Batista, a world language teacher in Newington, Conn., who also spoke to reporters. "We are strong, resilient, and creative, but we need support, we need help in our classrooms. Right now, that's not happening, and we cannot afford to lose more teachers."

A Major Public Health Challenge

The authors called stress and burnout a "major public health challenge confronting the education system as teachers are essential individuals supporting children and youth in their formative years."

A continued failure to understand the factors that lead to high teacher turnover, such as teacher stress and burnout, is creating a ripple effect, explains Wendy Reinke, a University of Missouri professor in school psychology and co-author of study .

"If teachers struggle, instruction suffers, and students don't learn as they should," Reinke explains. "When there aren't enough teachers, schools may hire uncertified staff or increase class sizes, making effective instruction and learning less likely. Disruptive behavior also spreads-kids in disorderly classrooms carry those habits into the next grade."

"Burnout" has become a ubiquitous term, but it's likely not the most accurate word to describe what educators have been enduring . (Doris Santoro, professor of education at Bodoiwn College prefers "demoralization.") "Burnout" can imply some sort of weakness or deficit on the part of the individual educator and an inability to cope-a form of victim-blaming. This point of view can lead to an abundant supply of unhelpful self-help strategies.

For many educators, using the most precise word isn't as important as understanding the root causes.

Burnout is a systemic problem, and the burden is not on the individual educator to prove they can navigate through the enormous pressure placed on them, says Kim Kneller, a science teacher in Allentown, Penn. "People should take care of themselves, but you can't just yoga, breathe, and self-care yourself out of burnout."

Kneller, who in 2024 wrote her doctoral dissertation on teacher burnout, says the focus should be on the workplace. "The people that dictate what our daily lives look like-that's where there needs to be more awareness and accountability."

'Just One More Thing Added to our Plate'

"We want to work with all stakeholders on these issues," Joe Holloway says. "But teachers having more say in curriculum is a big sign of respect. The fact that politicians are making these decisions is preposterous."

"I think [working conditions] are probably everyone's number one," says Kneller. "Everyone I know that has left has not left because of money. They've left because of something that happened to them in their place of work. They just put a boundary down, or they felt like they were mistreated. It could be the constantly changing expectations."

Not only has the workload increased exponentially, so has micromanagement, says Nicholas Cream, a social studies teacher in Holyoke, Mass.

"It's always just one more thing added to our plate. And when it comes to our classrooms, we're not really trusted to do what we know will work for our students" Cream says. "If you don't have every single minute of your class planned out, it is seen as a problem."

Cream, who is also president of the Holyoke Teachers Association, says it sometimes feels like teachers are being "pushed out, not burned out."

And when schools adopt new technologies to ostensibly help educators do their jobs, the results can backfire. A 2024 study by Auburn University found that if new learning platforms such as Canvas or Schoology were introduced removing old requirements, teachers reported higher levels of burnout. "Instead of being used to replace old ways of completing tasks, the learning management systems were simply another thing on teachers' plates," the researchers reported.

As more tasks and responsibilities are added, the profession has been transformed-and not for the better, says Becky Bissegger, an elementary school teacher in Salt Lake City.

"School isn't fun. By that, I mean engaging for students and rewarding for educators. It's the opposite. It's like boot camp for a lot of students." Bissegger says.

The toxic political climate and attacks on public education that have intensified in recent months have only exacerbated an already tense and trying environment.

"Teachers feel that there's an anti-public ed sentiment out there," Janet Sanders, a teacher in Herriman, UT told reporters in January. "It feels like we're being persecuted... We just feel threatened, and we feel for our students because we know that they will not be well served."

The Challenges Over Student Behavior

"Our students are coming into school every day with greater needs in every aspect of their lives, including around their mental health. But the support just isn't there to help teachers and staff," said Bissegger.

"That doesn't surprise me," says Nicholas Cream. "COVID changed a lot. With everything students bring into the space, you just cannot know how things are going hit or how hard a day is going to be."

Cream also suspects that the ongoing struggle over cellphones in the classroom has helped push behavioral concerns to the forefront of job stressors.

"We're all dealing with it. Students are addicted to these devices. But we're told we're the ones who must enforce the rules. Again, it all accumulates. We're all being weighed down by this daily work that has little to do with real teaching," Cream explains.

Changing the Narrative

Educators nationwide have voiced their support for clear and enforceable cell phone policies and, through their union, have successfully pushed districts to act. On other working conditions issues, including class size and more planning time, collective bargaining has proven time and time again to be an effective tool for educators.

In 2024, the Massachusetts Teachers' Association (MTA) was instrumental in a successful statewide ballot initiative in which voters decided to end the use of MCAS, a high-stakes standardized test, as a requirement for graduation . MTA President Max Page said lifting the graduation requirement will help improve working conditions by giving teachers more freedom in the classroom. "This creativity attracts students to the teaching profession and encourages them to stay," he said.

Educators are financially strapped, so higher pay is very important. But we also want to have safe, stable learning environments, and we want people to trust and have faith that we can do the job that we've been hired to do.

-Nicholas Cream , President of the Holyoke Teachers Association

Addressing the conditions that force too many educators to exit the profession is also the responsibility of lawmakers, who can prioritize long-term funding for public schools, along with the policies that Joe Holloway says, "can revitalize respect for this profession."

In January, on the eve of the new legislative session, the Utah Education Association (UEA) presented its own member survey of top educator concerns . "The results are clear," said UEA President Renée Pinkney. "Educators are calling on lawmakers to prioritize funding for long-term staffing solutions; reduce stress and burnout and provide behavioral health resources."

Changing the conversation about burnout to focus on the systemic, rather than individual, solutions is a positive first step, says Cream, especially in a treacherous political climate.

"I do think the narrative is changing, but we're still losing educators... We have people here that are really committed to their communities and to the young people that they serve. But we want to feel like we are trusted and cared about and given the tools and resources we need to succeed."

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Stress and exhaustion is pushing too many out of the profession, but it's not up to educators to find better ways to "cope." The responsibility to improve working conditions lies with those lawmakers and officials who dictate what a teacher's day looks like.

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The first teacher who spoke was addressing how kids aren't used to hearing no at home because their parents don't parent them, so when they are at school they do not behave. She explains how it was her hardest year because the kids gave her so much trouble and how the parents don't offer any support or sympathize with the teachers at all. She gave an example of when one of her students punched her repeatedly and their parent said "well what did you do to upset them". It's almost as if schools have turned more into babysitting and not education, and due to this teachers are extremely frustrated with misbehaving students and are struggling to find desire to stay. The other teachers that stood out to me spoke about the same issues of parents not parenting but then on top of that, having issues with administration and them not providing any support.

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Why Millennial Teachers Are Quitting Their Jobs

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Denver Teacher Strike: Thousands walk for better pay

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This picture shows the signs that teachers held to protest during a strike. "Teachers deserve fair pay because students deserve teachers who stay" and "On strike for our students". Statistically teachers make 20% less than their peers. These emphasize the connection between teachers not getting paid enough and teacher retention, with teacher strikes. As it is a cause and effect relationship. It also shows how keeping the teachers in the classroom benefits the students because, essentially teachers leaving affects the students and their quality of education.

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California invested $1 billion in developing scholarships and residency programs to support teachers. The teacher residencies set up potential teachers to co-teach for a year and commit to stay in the district for 3 years. Due to this, 90% of the residents get hired and 85% are still teaching 3 years later. In 2022 Mississippi raised teacher salaries by 12% and this led to a boost in enrollment for teacher prep programs by 20%, and they offer bonuses of $6,000 per year for National Board certified teachers. They also created a loan repayment program for teachers, and a residency program for special education as well. New York invested in mentorship programs for first year teachers. The Albert Shanker Grant Program, which helps with certification costs. They also promote diversity and more programs that have $20-25M in incentives. Lastly Texas created a Teacher Vacancy Task Force to fix shortages and provide better training, and work conditions. They also launched residency programs, using $100M from federal funds. Overall, common solutions are raising salaries, providing mentorships, and offering financial incentives.

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Ryan Saunders Deputy Director of State Policy

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Addressing Teacher Shortages: Insights From Four States

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State leaders from California, Mississippi, New York, and Texas joined LPI to discuss their states’ approaches to tackling teacher workforce issues. Their experiences may offer lessons for other states seeking to use legislative actions and financial incentives to better prepare and retain educators.

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This connects to the administrators giving the teachers so many new orders, rules, and ways of teaching and not being supportive or implementing incentives.