Calling it Quits

The Wall Street Journal reports that the current teacher shortage is occurring at the same time private sector businesses are eager to hire new employees. That is, teachers are done with teaching and there are plenty of opportunities for them to land new jobs.

The rate of people quitting jobs in educational services rose more than in any other industry in 2021, according to federal data. Many of those are teachers exhausted from toggling between online and classroom teaching instruction, shifting Covid-19 protocols and dealing with challenging students, parents and administrators.

Quits in the educational services sector rose 148% in that time frame, while quits in states and local education rose 40%, according to federal data. By comparison, quits in retail trade rose 27% in the same time frame. According to LinkedIn, the share of teachers on the site who left for a new career increased by 62% last year.

In states like Tennessee, it’s no mystery why teachers are leaving. The pay is not great and the demands are ever-increasing.

Of course, Tennessee has the resources to invest heavily in public education – IF policymakers want to.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the days following Gov. Bill Lee’s State of the State. Will there be new investment in public schools? Will the state take action to stem the tide of Tennessee teachers leaving the field?

calculator and notepad placed over stack of usa dollars
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

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One thought on “Calling it Quits

  1. The WSJ analysis is false and misleading. “Quits in the educational services sector rose 148% in that time frame, while quits in states and local education rose 40%, according to federal data. By comparison, quits in retail trade rose 27% in the same time frame.”

    When I analyze the numbers I get a 23% increase for the Educational Services sector Jan-Nov 2021, a DROP in state and local education, and a 39% increase in retail trade during that time period. Btw, retail trade is a useless comparison because the workers in that sector do not have anywhere close to a comparable background, education and training compared to teachers.
    Here is the data, see for yourself.
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PoT8q3RriOjPPoTqKJN7yimV4zo_V5rsNTD4V8orG7I/edit?usp=sharing

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