HARRISBURG, Pa. - The survey by RAND Corporation, a nonprofit global policy think tank based in Santa Monica, CA, found nearly one in four teachers may leave their jobs at the end of this school year. The report says teachers who identified as Black or African American were “particularly likely to consider leaving.”
Pennsylvania already has a shortage. And research suggests Lehigh Valley school districts were feeling the crunch even before the pandemic.
“And once the pandemic struck, it became even more difficult to do this. You know, a lot of educators felt like they weren't being listened to. And nobody was basically acknowledging their heightened stress level” says Aaron Chapin, vice president at the Pennsylvania State Education Association
Running remote and in-person classes was “exhausting,” he says.
“You had students that were in front of you and, at the same time, you had students at home. And it was very much like hosting two dinner parties at the same time. One in the back of your house and then one out on the patio. And you'd be running back and forth between them,” Chapin says.
Even before the pandemic, he says, schools had trouble filling positions. And that has only gotten worse.
“We're definitely seeing there being a teacher shortage. And really, it’s becoming a crisis,” he says.
Chapin says boosting teacher salaries and recruiting new teachers from diverse backgrounds are possible solutions.