Message is clear in teacher pay survey

THE Step Up Oklahoma plan put forward by business and civic leaders to help address the state’s budget problems includes support for $5,000 pay raises for public school teachers. New polling of former Oklahoma teachers underscores how significant such a move could be.

Among other things, the survey for the nonprofit Oklahoma Public School Resource Center asked respondents whether they agreed or disagreed that most teachers have quit because of pay. Ninety percent agreed or strongly agreed.

In an open-ended question, 34 percent said they weren’t teaching today because of pay or a better opportunity. When given a list of 20-plus factors in their decision not to teach, 48 percent said low pay was the most important factor. The second-highest number (31 percent) said they could earn more in another state.

The survey was conducted by Cole Hargrave Snodgrass and Associates, which sent emails to roughly 30,000 former teachers. The firm received 8,420 responses, allowing for a margin of error of less than 1 percent. Its key findings are drawn from the nearly 5,500 respondents (83 percent) who are younger than 65.

Thirty-one percent of respondents said better pay alone would bring them back to the classroom. That was particularly true of younger former teachers, those ages 25-44.

“Now we have the evidence that confirms that absolutely, we can attract back thousands of educators ...” state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said. She noted that success in doing this would drive down the need for emergency certified teachers, whose numbers have swollen in Oklahoma in the past three years.

A boost in pay to get Oklahoma in line with the regional average also could encourage more college students to consider teaching as their profession, Hofmeister said. As it is, enrollments in the state’s teaching programs have been declining for many years.

It’s worth noting that classroom management was a significant concern for former Oklahoma teachers. Twenty-three percent of those surveyed said a top reason for leaving was their inability to make decisions related to instruction. The same percentage said burdensome standards and curriculum requirements hampered their ability to teach.

In the same vein, 80 percent of respondents said the quality of the work environment for teachers had deteriorated during their time in the profession. Nearly half of all respondents said it had deteriorated a great deal — veteran teachers and those who taught in urban districts were among those leading the way with that response.

So, better pay alone wouldn’t be a cure-all. Hofmeister acknowledged this, as did Brent Bushey, head of the Oklahoma Public School Resource Center. “Clearly this is not an easy problem to solve,” Bushey said.

Further reforms must continue to be part of any conversation regarding improving public education in Oklahoma. Yet the results of this survey show that the pay scale has played a large role in driving teachers out of classrooms, something lawmakers — who for the past many years have talked about, but failed to approve, teacher pay raises — need to take to heart in 2018.