Woodward superintendent: Low pay is at center of teacher shortage issue
Two political races in Oklahoma are getting a great deal of attention, and education is at the center of both of them. The current state schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister switched parties to run against Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt. The governor’s appointed secretary of education, Ryan Walters, is running for state schools superintendent against another educator and state Teacher of the Year, Jena Nelson.
Schools in every corner of the state are struggling to find teachers to fill vacancies in classrooms. In the 2011-2012 school year, there were a total of 32 emergency teaching certificates issued. The 2021-2022 school year ended with over 3,600 emergency teaching certificates, and the current 2022-2023 school year is on pace to break that record with over 2,500 certificates issued before most schools had been in session for a month. While many can speculate and conjecture about what has caused the shortage, one recurring theme continues to be at the center of the discussion: low teacher pay.
In a 2018 survey conducted by the Oklahoma State Department of Education, the largest reason former teachers who are still credentialed but not teaching cited for leaving the profession was compensation, and 31% of the respondents indicated they would return to the profession if compensation was increased. Again, most agree that multiple factors have contributed to the teacher shortage, including political discourse, legislative and regulatory mandates, and lack of respect from parents and society in general; however, compensation is a significant factor that entices young adults to enter the profession and stay for the long run.
On Sept. 22, the State Board of Education approved state Superintendent Hofmeister’s proposed FY ‘23 budget, which included a $5,000 pay raise for teachers. The proposed budget would cost $310 million to cover the increase for the almost 53,000 teachers in the state in hopes of improving Oklahoma’s standing in regional teacher pay. According to the National Education Association, Rankings and Estimates in April, teacher compensation in Oklahoma ranks fourth in the region, though the fifth state in the region, New Mexico, recently signed legislation to increase teacher salaries by $10,000.
In my district, which I believe to be representative of others in our state and across the nation, my teachers work hard, truly care about our students and embrace being held accountable for what they do every day. Sadly, political rhetoric in our state, in fact across the nation, villainizes all teachers by making them out to be evildoers who are carrying out some sort of sadistic “left-wing, ‘woke’ indoctrination” of our kids. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I will stand for our teachers, administrators and support staff all day and every day. They deserve to be treated better than that.
Secretary Walters has not only continued to repeat his fear-mongering mantra but also has begun to spread a lie about administrative costs in Oklahoma schools. On a televised debate on Oct. 25, he said more dollars should go into the classroom as opposed to the current 51% administrative costs we are experiencing now. He is either horribly misinformed, twisting some data completely out of context, or just flat out lying. Oklahoma schools are held, by law, to very low administrative costs, which in my district is less than 5%. Perhaps he misplaced a decimal.
Those in the education profession deserve to be treated with respect and held in high regard for the jobs they do every day, in spite of unreasonable demands from parents and outlandish political speech in the media. I stand in support of leaders who champion initiatives to increase teacher pay in our state as a way of recognizing teachers as the dedicated professionals they are.
Kyle Reynolds, a doctoral candidate at Southern Nazarene University, is a 28-year educator and Superintendent of his alma mater, Woodward Public Schools.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Woodward superintendent: I stand for public school teachers
