Alarm! The numbers are shocking. Half of the teachers that we polled in the 2019 PDK Poll on the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools have “seriously considered” leaving the profession. While their reasons are widely varied, 19% of the respondents reported that they want to leave the profession due to pressure, stress or burnout. Early-career and future educators often find themselves overwhelmed with demands and have no one experienced to turn to for help. Here are the results of the latest national poll:
We discovered that half of the state-funded teachers are deeply disappointed by poor compensation and underfunded schools, which became one of the main reasons for them to start considering leaving their calling in the past couple of years. It comes as no surprise that the majority of respondents of the 2019 PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools stated that given the chance, they would vote to strike.
Other results have shown us that Americans have been naming the lack of financial support for public schools as the most serious issue for the past eighteen years. Sixty percent of respondents claimed that schools are heavily underfunded. However, they are not ready to raise taxes in order to solve this issue but expressed their willingness to give their votes to candidates who promise more prominent financial support for public schools. The same respondents also expressed their support towards using state lotteries, legal recreational marijuana, and sports gambling as revenue drivers for schools support.
Another issue that is being broadly discussed in education is whether public schools should offer Bible studies classes as electives or make them compulsory. Our poll showed that the majority of teachers and parents would like to see schools offering Bible studies classes as electives. They also expressed their wish for schools to make civics studies compulsory for students.
(see PDK Poll, 2019, https://pdkpoll.org/results )
One of the most frustrating facts that we learned from the PDK Poll in 2018, is that teaching profession, unfortunately, is dying out. Parents are talking their kids out of being teachers, telling them they are not going to make enough money for the living and that they will not get much respect for what they do. Here are other reasons that were named as main ones to avoid going into the teaching profession:
I believe that as social leaders, we need to realize the scale of this problem and address this issue before it is too late. Teaching profession in the USA is dying out because of the reasons above, but what about other countries, what is the situation there? What can we do to encourage and inspire young educators and keep new teachers coming in and educating the next generation? Education is power, and we should be the ones who should make sure it is accessible.