COLUMBUS – The first week of May might be Teacher Appreciation Week but teachers are feeling anything but appreciated, and that’s contributing to a decline in the number of people teaching in classrooms or studying to become teachers.
Faced with dwindling resources due to shrinking student enrollment, schools are also struggling to fill positions left empty even prior to the pandemic.
“There just seems to be a certain lack of respect for teachers now.” – Melissa Cropper, Ohio Federation of Teachers
Before COVID-19 caused an upheaval in the nation’s schools, Ohio had seen a nearly 50% drop in enrollment in teacher preparation programs and, since the pandemic, the number of people who’ve decided not to teach as a profession has multiplied, Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, said.
Pay is part of the issue, though Cropper says teachers are also telling her they’re exhausted and ready to leave.
“All this overemphasis on testing and now, all the stuff around divisive language in the classroom. All those kinds of things wear on teachers. But there just seems to be a certain lack of respect for teachers now, and that makes it harder and harder to do the job,” Cropper said.
The Ohio Department of Education recently announced over $5 million dollars in awards for higher education institutions to recruit candidates for educator preparation programs and a bill in the Statehouse would remove college degrees as a requirement to substitute teach as a lack of substitutes has forced some schools to shift to remote-learning days or cancel class.
Similar protocols have been approved twice in the past two years and the current legislation would extend the protocols two more years.
Enrollment erosion causes funding squeeze
Public school systems are beginning to feel the pinch from enrollment losses tied to the coronavirus pandemic.
Funding for schools is driven partly by student headcounts, and emergency provisions in many states allowed them to maintain funding at pre-pandemic levels.
But like the billions of dollars of federal relief money that have helped schools weather the crisis, those measures were not meant to last forever.
A school system in suburban Kansas City is eliminating over 100 jobs, including kindergarten aides and library clerks.
Oakland, California, is closing seven schools.
Other districts around the country are merging classrooms, selling buildings and leaving teaching positions unfilled.