According to a 2022 Gallup poll, 52 percent of teachers reported being burnt out. Teacher retention is declining, not because of pay alone but because of worsening working conditions created by policy failures.
Officials and lawmakers have not done enough to address and alleviate the excessive workload that has pushed too many teachers out of the profession. The unreasonable workload teachers are expected to take on has always been a topic of discussion regarding the profession.
Since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, teachers have been expected to take on more administrative tasks, emotional labor and instructional responsibilities added to their already heavy workload.
Once school was able to be in-person, education was being criticized at an all-time high by the public, with arguments of a “culture war” in schools fueled by debates over curriculum transparency, book bans and parental control.
This was a political agenda to divide teachers and parents regarding what should be taught in schools.
Since this rapid uptick of political polarization and accusations of “indoctrinating children,” the task of teaching students about race, racism, racial and ethnic diversity and LGBTQIA+ issues has become nearly impossible without major backlash from outside voices.
This has added an unprecedented amount of stress on educators.
These pressures leave teachers constantly defending their professional integrity rather than focusing on instruction. The escalating student behavior issues and lack of support are major drivers of educator burnout.
Post-pandemic, it has been reported by the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) that behaviors have been negatively affected.
“87% of public schools reported that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted student socio-emotional development during the 2021–22 school year,” according to NCES.
It was once rare to hear of a student throwing desks, overturning furniture, shouting insults, threatening violence and physically attacking others — including staff and peers. Now, these incidents have become far more common in public schools.
This behavior has been linked to the youth mental health crisis, and schools are lacking the amount of trained staff necessary to assist students in need. This is all added to the educator’s list of responsibilities, even though teachers do not have the time, training or resources to provide the level of mental-health intervention these situations require.
Many teachers have reported that these crises interrupt instructional time each day, which leaves them feeling ineffective and overwhelmed.
As teachers spend more time managing behaviors than teaching, it creates more emotional exhaustion and decreases the content taught to the students.
Teacher retention drops when teachers feel unsafe due to student behaviors and when they feel unsupported in their classroom with students who struggle with behaviors.
Ultimately, these escalating behaviors reveal another way in which educators are asked to shoulder responsibilities without the systemic support they need. If policymakers continue to fail to address these pressures and problems, schools will continue to lose educators, and students will pay the price.
The consequences reach beyond individual schools; they will impact community stability and long-term student outcomes.
This problem is compounded by limited school funding, which makes it difficult for administrators to provide the support systems necessary for teachers to address the student behavioral crises in their classrooms.
Public schools are underfunded, notably after the COVID-19 pandemic related to staffing shortages and budget cuts.
School administrators often lack the resources to provide sufficient support for their teachers due to insufficient funding. For example, districts commonly cannot hire enough counselors, behavior specialists or paraprofessionals.
As a result, the burdens of behavioral management, mental health support and extra administrative tasks — such as behavior documentation — fall heavily on individual teachers.
Without the funding for additional paraprofessionals, mental health services and counselors, teachers are forced to take on roles that are far beyond instruction, all contributing to the emotional exhaustion and burnout in educators.
The lack of structural support makes it difficult for teachers to stay in the profession.
The funding a school receives determines the staffing a school can provide, and staffing determines whether or not a teacher is able to actually do their job.
Teacher burnout is not a result of a lack of passion or individual weakness; it is the predictable outcomes of policies from the government and underfunded systems that place impossible demands on educators.
Teacher burnout will continue to rise as long as working conditions remain unstable and schools continue to lack the resources to support their educators and students.
When teachers are overwhelmed, unsupported and forced to navigate growing behavioral, emotional and political pressures alone, the entire system suffers.
Students will lose instructional time, classrooms will lose stability and communities will lose experienced professionals who should have been valued and supported.
Fixing this is more than raising salaries; it requires investments in school staffing, mental health resources and behavioral support teams so teachers are not the ones expected to manage all of the challenges themselves.
This requires lawmakers and officials to move away from politically-motivated policies and instead collaborate like professionals with educators on realistic expectations for curriculum, workload and behavior management.
This requires administrators to use the funding they receive on training for teachers, paraprofessionals and other staff to get the support they deserve. Providing training without staffing is ineffective; districts must provide both professional development and adequate staff to do so.
If we truly respect our public schools, then we must respect the people who make them work. Teachers should not have to burn themselves out to prove their dedication to their profession.
Our future is education — the well-being of millions of students — and it all depends on our ability to create working conditions that allow teachers to stay in their profession, grow and succeed, not burn themselves out.
The road from here is clear: support, invest and listen to educators; they are shaping our future.
Avery can be reached at [email protected].
