^{The Bottom Line} It’s Not Just Families Leaving District Public Schools

There was a mass exodus from district public schools during the prolonged school closures when parents had a front-row seat in their child’s classroom through the remote Zoom sessions. They witnessed the infiltration of radical political agendas and the lack of quality academic instruction. When schools were unresponsive to their concerns, parents who could exit the system for alternative education avenues for their children did so.

But it wasn’t just families who left district public schools. Teachers have also found the door. According to a new report from Independent Women, titled “Give Teachers a Break: Cutting Red Tape to Unleash the Potential of America’s Great Teachers,” an astonishing 16% of teachers “left their schools between 2020 and 2022.” Additionally, the report notes that only 20% of teachers “say they are very satisfied with their jobs.”

Many dissatisfied educators and those who have left their schools not only want to provide better learning for students, but they also do not want to be forced to teach things that have nothing to do with academic instruction. Additionally, teachers recognized that they could have control over their professional growth, development, and compensation.

With the seniority salary schedule, pay is based on experience within the public school system. Therefore, an outstanding teacher with only two years of experience will receive significantly less compensation than another teacher at the same school who has 20 years of experience, regardless of the quality of learning provided. The compensation structure ignores professional performance. Many of the best and highest-achieving teachers are disheartened by having their hard work deemed irrelevant. As a result, the system gets what it rewards — more career educators and fewer top-quality educators with an achievement mindset.

Don’t expect a slowing anytime soon in the number of teachers leaving the public system in order to take control of their careers and find other opportunities to do what they got into the profession to do — inspire students, instill a love of learning in them, and teach core academic subjects, not political and radical topics. It’s time to attract, retain, and reward high-performing teachers. The result would be transformational to the quality of public education.