Teachers tell why they left
The Mississippi Legislature came through for public school teachers this year, approving a $5,000 salary increase that for once elevated the state above the average Southeastern pay for educators.
That was a good move by lawmakers, one that should not be discounted. But a report on the Mississippi Today website says a lot of teachers left their jobs at the end of the 2021-22 school year. Interviews with a few of them make it clear that higher pay is just one of many challenges the education field faces.
Mississippi Today cited state Department of Education figures that said 5,800 teachers — accounting for 17% of the state’s education work force — left their school district at the end of this year.
That overstates the turnover rate because the data does not specify whether these teachers took a job in a different school district, found different work or retired. But even if only a small percentage of those teachers actually left the business, it will compound the state’s existing problem of teacher retention.
Just last December, the Department of Education said that the state had more than 3,000 openings for certified teachers — meaning that about 10% of the state’s 32,000 education jobs were either vacant, filled by a substitute or by someone without the proper certifications.
The most relevant information in the story came from teachers themselves, who told why they left their jobs. Broadly speaking, they felt disrespected and burdened with extra responsibilities. They disliked staff meetings that took away from their lesson-planning time, and were disappointed in a lack of freedom in their work — by having to “teach to the test” instead of being able to try something different and creative.
One teacher, who left after seven years, put it this way: “I found myself with nothing left to give to the people who are supposed to matter the most to me. I was looking for a work-life balance that all people are trying to grasp, but nobody is respecting teachers enough to give them.”
Another teacher left a high-performing district because she found it impossible to get her work done in a reasonable amount of time: “I wasn’t willing anymore to sacrifice my free time and my mental well-being, unpaid, for a job that doesn’t celebrate our achievements.”
A 15-year teacher left her job in DeSoto County for another school in next-door Memphis, where she makes more money and gets paid twice a month. Mississippi teachers get paid once per month. She said twice-a-month pay would help teachers with budgeting their money.
Student loans are a factor, too. A group called Mississippi First reported in January that college debt puts pressure on teachers, as it would with people in any job, to seek work that pays better. In a curious aside, this report said that 25% of teachers in F-rated school districts owe $100,000 or more in student loans, while only 5% of those in A or B districts do.
The message is that the big pay raise helped, but money is not the only issue for teachers. The state and its school districts can address some of the other problems teachers cited. If a few changes convince more of them to stay on the job in Mississippi, it will be worthwhile.
— Greenwood Commonwealth, July 1