PA Teachers Leaving Their Jobs At Historic Rate, New Study Finds

HARRISBURG, PA — A new study shines a dim light on the plight of schools around Pennsylvania, as teachers left their jobs at an all-time historic rate during the past school year.

The 23-page report from Penn State professor Ed Fuller, called "Pennsylvania Teacher Staffing Challenges," lays out several startling statistics that show that the troubling trend has only worsened in recent years.

Fuller pointed to numerous factors, ranging from teacher working conditions and low pay to more inscrutable reasons.

"(A) factor is the respect and prestige accorded to teachers," Fuller wrote. "Recent research strongly suggests that the prestige and respect for teachers has declined dramatically in recent years."

In the last 11 years, the percentage of teachers feeling "respected" has fallen from 77 percent to 46 percent, the study says.

"Declining respect and prestige create unfavorable working conditions that increase the odds that a teacher will quit the profession," Fuller added.

Pennsylvania actually did not lose significantly more teachers after the pandemic than other states, statistics show, as the teacher attrition rate grew only from 5.4 percent in 2021 to 6.2 percent in 2022. But the 1.5 increase to 7.7 percent in 2023 is historic — the 9,587 Pennsylvania teachers that left their jobs during this past school year is more than any other year in history.

On top of that, there were only 5,101 newly certified teachers in Pennsylvania in 2022, Fuller found. So in addition to many teachers leaving, there are not nearly enough new teachers coming into the profession.

The problem is particularly bad in lower income areas, where teachers left their jobs at an even higher rate. The report also found a severe lack of diversity in Pennsylvania teachers, which authors said was harmful for student outcomes.

The report offered numerous recommendations to solve the crisis, including improved salaries, stipends for teachers to work in lower income schools that are harder to staff, implemeneting a statewide teacher working conditions survey to help leaders identify areas of concern, and fund a statewide marketing campaign to improve perceptions of teachers.

Lawmakers have endeavored to address the issue. Earlier in the spring, the PA Senate State Education Committee held a special hearing on the shortages. And State Rep. Patty Kim (D-Dauphin) announced Monday that a package of legislation which she is co-sponsoring, long in the wings, would be introduced in the near future.

"Over the past decade, teacher prep program enrollment has declined nationally by one-third, while PA’s teacher prep program enrollment has declined by over two-thirds," Kim said.

Advocates say that increasing teacher salaries is paramount.

“Fixing the longer-term educator pipeline is going to take a sustained, multiyear commitment to address barriers,” Rich Askey, the president of the state's largest teacher's union, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said in a statement. “And the most significant of those are the cost of becoming a teacher and the salaries we pay.”

Askey called for a $60,000 minimum teacher salary, and $20 an hour minimum wage for education support professionals like bus drivers and cafeteria workers.

The forthcoming package of bills, named "Elevate Teachers," focuses on streamlining, simplifying, and making more affordable the process of becoming a teacher. Addressing Askey's concerns, it would raise the minimum teacher salary from $18,500 to $50,000 — not quite the number the union is looking for, but a substantial increase nonetheless. The bills would also create a grant program to recruit students, paraprofessionals,a nd parents to support high-need schools. And it would provide grants to colleges to create or expand programs to help certify more teachers.

Notably, the package also includes a proposal to forgive up to $40,000 in loans, and would offer $32,000 in scholarships to students in a teaching program at a state school.