Despite a mass exodus in education, this first-year Modesto teacher is staying. Why?

Anthony Drobnick is one of 60 first-year teachers in the classrooms at Modesto City Schools. As a social studies teacher at Gregori, he finds he is the youngest at the staff meetings and the oldest in the classroom.

According to the California Department of Education, there were more than 10,000 teacher vacancies during the 2021-22 school year. There also was a 16% decline in the number of new teacher credentials issued by the state between the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years.

Despite a few of Drobnick’s friends dropping out of the accreditation program he attended at Stanislaus State, he’s motivated to stay in the classroom for the foreseeable future to motivate and teach his students about the world.

Drobnick recognizes how hard it was to get where he is, noting the various barriers and challenges teachers face, from the large workload to the politicization of education.

“In the classroom, the responsibility is much higher as a full-time teacher than it is as a student teacher,” he said. ”There’s always a chance where a student might say some comment that feels out of pocket and there is nothing in the credential program that could ever prepare me for that.”

“Some days are gonna be better than others, but I always keep my students at the center of everything I do,” he said.

Heather Dean, an associate professor of teacher education and single-subject credential program placement coordinator at Stanislaus, said the university’s program is growing slightly.

Dean places student teachers in six local districts, with Modesto, Turlock, Merced and Ceres being the biggest ones.

Drobnick was one of those student teachers. He was placed at Enochs High School last year.

“Most of our students want to stay in the Central Valley,” Dean said. “This is where they grew up. This is where their families are, and they want to be a difference maker. If people had access to seeing the students we have in our program, I think they would be really encouraged about the future of education.”

A 2022 report by the California Teachers Association and UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools found 20% of teachers said they probably or definitely will leave the profession within the next three years, citing burnout and political attacks as the main reasons why.

At Modesto City Schools, the teacher retention rate for the past five years was around 79%.

Lange Luntao, the director of partnerships and engagement at the Education Trust-West and former Stockton Unified teacher and board member, said he believes there are a few reasons behind the teacher shortage in California.

Teachers are increasingly under attack because there’s been a shift toward equity, inclusion and diversity, Luntao said. He said this politicization is causing many college students to leave their undergraduate classrooms, making education less desirable than it was in the past.

He also said many teachers struggled during the pandemic and continue to be underpaid. “We’re relying a lot on educators’ personal will and resiliency to get into the classroom. We put up all these obstacles and we kind of rely on teachers wanting to get into the classroom just because of their own passion. We know that passion doesn’t pay the bills.”

According to the California Department of Education, the average salary for new teachers during the 2021-22 school year ranged from $48,481 to $54,215 at elementary school districts and $49,934 to $57,234 at high school districts, depending on the size of the school district.

The average salary for new teachers at unified school districts ranged from $47,616 to $54,906.

According to Modesto City Schools, beginning teachers who are new to the profession and have their preliminary credentials earn a minimum of $68,150.

In addition, according to a report from PEN America — an advocacy organization that highlights free speech for writers, artists and journalists — over 392 ”intimidation bills” have been introduced by state lawmakers nationwide since 2021. According to the organization, these are bills that stop educators from teaching subjects of race, gender and sexuality.

One of these bills was introduced in California but did not pass.

“It really calls upon the state to take more bold action, to fix these pipeline issues,” said Luntao. “Otherwise, we’re only gonna see more and more vacancies in classrooms and particularly in schools that serve students of color and low-income students.”

Although the semester is ending for Drobnick, he is excited to come back in the spring to see his students once more.

“At graduation, I am going to be cheering until I am red, blue and every other color in the face because they crossed that stage,” he said. “It’s because they did it and just to be a footnote in that journey. That’s what keeps me going.”