Crisis in Education: We Can No Longer Sit Back and Watch

In the August 2014 IMPACT State publication, I wrote a commentary called, “Where have all the teachers gone?” While I am not usually one to say “I told you so,” I feel like that commentary could be published again right now and it would still be very relevant.

Last week there were numerous articles about teachers leaving the profession in record numbers and fewer students enrolling in education programs. These include:

From CNN, “Teachers are leaving and few people want to join the field. Experts are sounding the alarm”

From the Wall Street Journal, “Teachers are quitting, and companies are hot to hire them”

From NPR, “More than half of teachers are looking for the exits, a poll says”

Hopefully, as citizens, we are getting the message. Teachers are burned out, they are tired, they are not appreciated, and they are not paid well. For a moment, put yourself in a teacher’s shoes or even better yet, substitute in a classroom. If you were a teacher now, would you stay in the profession?

Many of you will say that this burnout is because of the Covid-19 pandemic and while that has certainly played a role, the fact is that teachers are not respected. Well, except between March and June of 2020 when everyone was praising teachers for all of their hard work to educate our children remotely. A headline from the Washington Post says, 'Teachers deserve to make a billion dollars’ — Shonda Rhimes, plus other homeschooling parents on appreciating educators.

Yet, even then, some predicted that the appreciation and respect for teachers wouldn’t last. The Economic Policy Institute asked the question “will it give them a voice in education and their working conditions?” Looking at what teachers in South Dakota are enduring, I believe the answer to that question is NO.

In 2016, the South Dakota legislature passed a bill that would increase our state sales tax by a half-cent to increase teacher pay in the state. This led to SD ranking 48^th in teacher pay, but that was short-lived as we are now back to being 50^th out of 51 in teacher pay.

What can we do? Here are some ideas, many of which are the same ones that I listed in 2014.

1. Respect teachers as professionals.
2. Increase teacher pay, not just the amount of money being allocated to the district.
3. Support teachers—send a thank you email, ask them how they are doing, substitute in the classroom.
4. Provide good mentoring to teachers in their first one to three years. Maybe each new teacher should have two mentors, one in their district that may or may not be in their content area and one outside the district in their content area.
5. Give new teachers an extra preparation period during the school day during their first and second year.

This is the third school year that teachers have had to deal with the pandemic, on top of their regular workload. Except for healthcare workers, many professionals have been allowed to work remotely for their health and safety. We have put teachers in the direct line of fire by not mandating masks in classrooms and giving up on contact tracing.

I just returned from the South Dakota STEM Education Conference, which is co-hosted by the South Dakota Council of Mathematics and the South Dakota Science Teachers Association. The conference was last held in February 2020. Every time I attend this conference I am always inspired by the many excellent math and science teachers in South Dakota. During Saturday's lunch, teachers who plan to retire this year were asked to stand up—everyone looked around the room with worried faces and miraculously no one stood.

There is a crisis in our state and our nation in education. Contact your representatives, substitute in a classroom, run for school board, etc. None of us can afford to sit back and watch because education is the future of our country and that future requires good teachers.