Teacher resignations increase significantly

Tess Nelson
The Red Oak Express

The careers of many teachers ended recently with this school year.  According to the Iowa State Education Association (ISEA), teacher resignations in the state are up by 15% this year, the highest turnover the ISEA has seen in a few years.
Over the past several years, teachers have been dealing with the stress of COVID-19, remote teaching issues, attacks from politicians, parents and continued school shootings.
Red Oak Superintendent Ron Lorenz said they have experienced turnover in the 20% to 25% range recently. He continued to say there are no easy solutions to the problem because of the numerous factors in play.
“At the end of the day, the teacher shortage is a simple math problem: more and more people are getting out of the profession and fewer and fewer people are coming in. If we don’t find a way to balance that equation we are going to continue to struggle,” said Lorenz.
He continued to say he believes education is in the crosshairs of  ‘culture wars.’ Lorenz said this year alone there were more than 50 bills introduced in the state legislature focused on schools and public education.
“Most suggested we do more with less. Many of them targeted educators directly by challenging our motives, our commitment, and our abilities in the most outlandish ways. It’s no surprise that teachers and administrators feel under attack by politicians trying to score cheap political points.”
Lorenz added, many of Iowa’s legislators continue to “low-ball state supplemental aid” and “try to siphon funding away from public education” which has many teachers seeking other career opportunities. 
“If we continue to see minimal funding and state aid that is a half to a third of the inflation rate, this problem is only going to get worse,” he explained.
And while the majority of people tend to focus on pay as the primary reason for the teacher shortage, Lorenz said teachers who leave the profession cite stress or burnout nearly twice as often as insufficient pay as their reason for leaving. 
“We used to worry about teachers getting out of the profession within five years, now we are seeing it happen after one or two years. Our district is competitive with other schools in our area, but we are not necessarily competitive with other industries.”
Lastly, Lorenz said it seems like in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are in a rather peculiar headspace.
“During the pandemic, people were generally gracious and grateful for all that teachers do. Now they are back to taking teachers for granted. A growing lack of civility has made this even worse. Many students are less respectful and less compliant than they were even five years ago. Many parents are much less supportive than they used to be. This makes teaching an uphill battle.”
Griswold Superintendent David Henrichs shared that approximately 18% of their certified staff members will not be back next year.  That includes two teachers who retired and six teachers who accepted other teaching positions.  These numbers are slightly higher than in recent years, he explained.
“The largest change that I believe is needed is to increase teacher pay.  This may seem easy enough - each district could just elect to pay more.  However, each district has to balance their budget,” Henrichs explained. “ It is a very difficult task to increase the pay of our staff members at a level needed to attract and retain staff when the amount of increased funding from the State is 2.5%. Given today’s job market and the rate of inflation, districts have to give more than a 2.5% increase to be competitive with other schools and businesses.”
Dr. Mike Wells, Essex superintendent, said in Essex this past year, they had a teacher leave to another district and one retire.  In Hamburg, where he also serves as superintendent, they had one teacher move to Omaha, one get out of teaching, and one retire.
“We added a charter school so we have had to try and find teachers which has been, and is, a huge challenge. The pay for teachers is ridiculous and if we don’t take some huge steps to improve this we will continue to see less and less people go into education. We went to job fairs in Missouri and Arkansas and found one teacher,” said Wells. “We used to get 100 apps for every job, today we get 0.  This is the case across the country and it is a real crisis.”
Wells has a few suggestions as a way to help with the teacher shortage. He said to start the teaching salary at $50,000; offer student loan forgiveness programs or even offer special interest rates on home loans, such as those for veterans.
Southwest Valley Superintendent Chris Fenster said his district has been very fortunate to not have any resignations this year because of negative issues affecting the teaching profession.
“We had four teachers that moved to other districts this year and we have found replacements for all but the Spanish teacher,” Fenster said.