Teachers in 'burnout mode;' survey finds more than half are considering quitting
Feb. 3—As New Hampshire schools grapple with acute staff shortages and daily questions about whether there will be enough teachers to keep students in class, educators around the country say they are growing weary and are thinking seriously about leaving education.
Staff shortages in schools — and the extra burdens the remaining teachers, aides and administrators have to carry — are contributing to teacher burnout across the country, according to a new survey of educators.
"Everybody is in burnout mode," said Sue Hannan, a literacy intervention specialist at Manchester's Hillside Middle School and president of the Manchester Education Association, the city's teachers union.
"We are seeing very high numbers of people in Manchester as well as everywhere else across the country that are just done. They're done with teaching, they're done with the negativity surrounding it."
According to a survey of teachers by the National Education Association, one of two major teachers unions in the United States, teachers around the country are frustrated by similar conditions.
More than half of the teachers surveyed by the union — 55% — said they are planning to retire early or leaving education because of the stress of the pandemic.
"We are facing an exodus of more than half our nation's teachers and other school staff are now indicating they will be leaving education sooner than planned," said NEA president Becky Pringle in a statement this week.
Almost three in four teachers surveyed said they have had to fill in for colleagues or take on extra work because of staff shortages.
Nine in 10 said burnout was a serious problem among educators, after nearly two years of pandemic disruptions.
"We want to make sure that all students are getting their education, everything they deserve from being in school," Hannan said. "It just wears on the educators because we are the ones who have to do it all."
According to the teachers union survey, one thing that would really help is pay raises. Manchester and other districts have raised daily rates for substitutes, and Hannan said she hoped to see pay raises for paraprofessional educators.
The rising cost of housing in New Hampshire has made pay a more urgent issue across education, and is figuring into the dispute between the University of New Hampshire and its professors.
Pay has also been an issue in increasingly contentious negotiations between the Nashua Teachers Union and the Nashua School District.
Nearly every teacher surveyed — 96% — said raises would help address their feelings of burnout.
A handful of states and school districts are using federal COVID relief dollars to give teachers bonuses. For example, every Georgia educator got a $1,000 bonus from the December 2020 stimulus package.
New Hampshire has focused COVID-19 relief spending on training for teachers to help with student behavior, anxiety and classroom management rather than bonuses for teachers.
Just last week, the Executive Council approved a no-bid contract with a Peterborough consultant to offer training on managing classrooms where students are struggling with mental health and social-emotional wellness, spending up to $815,000.
In Manchester, Hannan said a cooperative relationship between the union and district leaders is helping. Before this school year started, she said, district leaders met with the union leadership to think through issues like staff shortages that might crop up this year, and make a plan before a crisis hits.
For example, she said, teachers and administration agreed to handle a teacher's planned leave — and the likely unavailability of a long-term sub — by splitting up that teacher's classes among other sections, and boosting their pay for the extra work.
Other national figures suggest staff shortages may persist for years.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics analyzed by the union suggested some 567,000 fewer educators are working now than two years ago, before the pandemic started. A longstanding shortage of staff could burden remaining educators with additional responsibilities for years to come — which, Hannan said, will come at a cost to students.
"It impacts ability for anybody to do their jobs," she said.
