Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2019

Teachers quit their jobs in record numbers during 2018

Author:     SAM FULWOOD III
Source:     Think Progress
Publication Date:     DEC 30, 2018, 3:12 PM
 Link: Teachers quit their jobs in record numbers during 2018
Stephan:   America as a society doesn't like children, nor does it consider them very important to the country's future. Oh, of course" you probably love your children, most parents do, although you'd be amazed how many don't. But I am speaking about America as a culture and society. Why do I say this? Because that's what the data shows. (Look in the SR archive for Why Doesn’t America Like Its Children?)  Nowhere is this clearer than in our public education system. American children rank at the bottom of the developed world in math, science, and language skills. They are also notably obese, drugged by medications, and physically unskilled. It has gotten so bad that the teachers are giving up, and leaving the field. This story accurately describes the present situation. Our social values are all wrong, and if we don't make fundamental and profound changes, our future as a country looks very bleak.

Citing low pay, widespread disrespect and potential opportunities in other fields, frustrated public-school teachers walked away from their classrooms in record numbers during 2018, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report based on U.S. Department of Labor figures.

Public education employees, including person in jobs as varied as community-college faculty, school psychologists and janitors, quitting their jobs at the fastest rate since such figures were first compiled in 2001. In the first 10 months of 2018, public educators quit at an average rate of 83 per 10,000 a month, the newspaper said, citing the Labor Department. Although the overall rate for U.S. workers was much higher — 231 jobs quit per 10,000 workers in 2018 — the figure for teachers and other public education employees was a record high and the continuation of a disturbing trend.

For years, teachers have complained that they’re overworked and under appreciated as states have stripped away work protections, cut school budgets and blamed them for student underperformance.

What’s more, as the private-sector labor market rebounded from the recession, teachers and other school workers have yet to get back to where they were more than a decade ago. “Funding for public education in several states hasn’t yet recovered […]

Read the Full Article