There are lots of ways this problem can be addressed – but one that matters a lot is paying teachers more.
A lot more.
Teacher pay matters. Investing in the people who have direct contact with students is a direct investment in student success.
When teachers get paid more, students do better. In one study, a 10% increase in teacher pay was estimated to produce a 5 to 10% increase in student performance. Teacher pay also has long-term benefits for students. A 10% increase in per-pupil spending for each of the 12 years of education results in students completing more education, having 7% higher wages, and having a reduced rate of adult poverty. These benefits are even greater for families who are in poverty.
A recently-released analysis of teacher compensation relative to other professions shows that teachers in Tennessee face a nearly 30% pay gap compared to similarly-trained professionals.
In Tennessee, the story is particularly bleak.
The teacher pay penalty is nearly 30% – worse than the national average.
Tennessee is also now the state that invests the least in public education.
Tennessee’s numbers are worse than the national average – and America’s numbers are pretty sad, too:
Inflation-adjusted weekly wages for public school teachers fell 6.2% over the last three decades, while wages for other college graduates rose 28.8% over the same period.
And, well, while TSS has won a lot of fights, the results aren’t so good for Tennessee schools and communities:
In the decade+ that TSS has been seeking to influence Tennessee education policy, the state has seen the creation of a universal school voucher scheme that costs $300 million, including millions of dollars in payments to a private vendor to administer the program.
Tennessee now ranks last in the nation in investment in public education and would need $1.9 billion to catch up to our neighbors in Mississippi.
Thanks in part to the policies advanced by the lawmakers backed by TSS, Tennessee teachers are now making less (6.5% less) in inflation-adjusted dollars than they were when TSS was just starting.
In fact, the state’s investment in schools in real dollars has dropped by 10% over the past two budget cycles – budgets dominated by education policies championed by TSS.
For years, those of us watching public education have warned of a teacher shortage.
Those warnings were often met with either skepticism or some token gesture. Now, analysis of teacher turnover indicates we are here. At the breaking point.
The shortage is of course a matter of movement into and out of the field. There aren’t enough teachers on the way in: the pipeline is bad as interest in the career has plummeted, with the percent of college grads entering the profession lower than it’s been in a half century.
The unfilled spots that result from turnover and the inability to recruit qualified candidates makes the job harder for teachers who stay. Remaining teachers lose valued and experienced partners, are asked to train replacements, and must provide remediation for students who’ve been taught by a series of substitutes or novice teachers. These teachersaren’t just working harder, they are more stressed, have less time for their students, and can become less effective. It causes some to look toward the exit themselves. Making the job harder, of course, makes it more difficult to recruit.
Yes, there IS a shortage of teachers. No, it’s not going to be easy to solve. Yes, paying more helps. Some. And, yes, the value proposition for teaching is pretty terrible right now.
Barnum and Fernandez note several of the obvious reasons that teaching is a less attractive profession these days. Low pay, especially if you compare it to the pay for similarly-educated professions. The rising tide of bad behavior from students. The onslaught of attention-sapping technology. The insistence that good education is only for the right people and for other people we just need schools to crank out compliant meat widgets to serve corporate overlords.
And, well, there’s a lot of negativity when teaching – formerly one of America’s most revered professions – is discussed:
There is the absolute unrelenting negativity directing at the profession. Twenty years ago, American schools were failing, and it was all teachers’ fault. Then teachers were run down as groomers and pedophiles. Then they were part of the evil conspiracy behind COVID. Commies and traitors! If you aren’t on the ground, in schools, I’m not sure you can really grasp just how relentless and ugly the steady denigration of teachers has been in this country for the past few decades. And the folks who could be the next generation of teachers have had a front row seat.
WKRN reports on the latest dubious distinction Tennessee has earned thanks to Gov. Bill Lee’s lackluster leadership.
Tennessee classrooms are losing teachers at a higher rate than any other state in the nation, according to a new report from the National Education Association.
The report found Tennessee saw the largest percentage decline in its teacher workforce between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, losing 10.36% of its educators during that period, or more than 7,400 teachers.
Finally, a good idea from Cameron Sexton. Chalkbeatreports the House Speaker is proposing providing stipends to student teachers.
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton wants the state to start paying student teachers for their required internships, a proposal state education advocates say they support amid ongoing concerns about teacher shortages.
Sexton told Chalkbeat Tennessee this week he wants to provide additional state funding to allow local districts to pay teacher trainees directly.
Sexton said the amount could mean a $1,500 or $2,000 monthly stipend, though the proposal appears to be in the early days of development with few concrete details.
When it comes to addressing Tennessee’s teacher shortage, Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Cookeville) believes it’s time to “think outside of the box,” but his idea to possibly drop the state’s bachelor’s degree requirement for teachers is drawing some criticism.
During Speaker Sexton’s state-of-the-state address last month, he suggested creating a two-year associate degree program for teaching to churn out more educators in Tennessee.
When all else fails, just make it easier to become a teacher and “churn out more educators.”
It apparently hasn’t occurred to Sexton that there is a reason (or several reasons) why people aren’t exactly lining up for teaching jobs.
Perhaps if Sexton floated the idea of improving both pay and classroom resources, more college students would consider K-12 teaching a viable career option.
As it stands, Tennessee teachers are among the lowest-paid in the Southeast and school funding in the state lags behind our regional peers.
Now, though, there’s also an example of what might happen. A school district in Oregon moved starting pay in the district from $38,000 a year to $60,000 a year. In the process, all teachers received at least a 15% raise.
The move was approved by 100% of union members voting.
After announcing the salary schedule change, we had pools of qualified applicants to consider. It was a fun spring. Our administrators were having to have these rich conversations about best fit, really digging into things like, ‘Here’s a full table of highly qualified people; who is going to best fulfill the needs of our school? It’s a conversation that most districts don’t get to have right now.
One Tennessee school district is leaving free money for teacher pay on the table. The Grundy County School Board has decided not to accept the state’s $2000 bonus for teachers that was provided as part of the universal school voucher bill that passed this year.
