Why are Texas teachers quitting in record numbers_ This is what they said.

I'm having a heart attack. I'm having a heart attack. I started having nosebleeds. I never had a nosebleed. And I just felt like everything was choking. I was like, what's going on? I had increased anxiety medicine, depression medicine. And the doctor came in, he goes, are you under a lot of stress? And I'm like, no. He goes, what do you do? I go, I'm a teacher. He goes, yes, you are. These are the stories of six North Texas teachers. We represent different grade levels. We represent different ISDs. They do have one thing in common. They all recently quit. It takes a toll. I could not do it anymore. The job can feel like a calling. Growing up, my mom was a teacher. And in fact, she was my teacher in first and fourth grade. Amy Rodenroth followed her mother's footsteps. Derrick Spencer saw the chance to make a difference. There wasn't many African American males in elementary. Myra Ann Gable was inspired. My high school math teacher. She looked like me. She had poise. She just gave me a chance. Together, they have a combined 140 years of experience. Raise your hand if you feel like you made a difference in kids' lives. So stepping away wasn't exactly easy. I mean, I can't do that anymore, but that's where my heart is. And I just cried because I thought, that's my last, you know, that's my last group of kids. The Texas Education Agency reports more than 13% of the state's teachers, nearly 50,000 of them, left the profession last year. The highest number on record. There's more than just one reason, this group told us, for the exodus. But a good starting point is the money. Or better said, the lack of it. I know I didn't get into it for the money. I know I didn't get into education for the money. I sure thought it would be a lot easier than having to hold down a couple of jobs to maintain. The average starting salary for a teacher in Texas is just over $45,000. As they gain experience, salaries increase, but not by much. Veteran Texas teachers make on average just $20,000 more than novices. I've talked to my ex-students who are graduating and who are going into college, and they're like, I go, so what are you going to do? I would be a teacher, but the main things that are the drawbacks, money. They can't survive. They can't survive on what they're getting paid. And the retirement, when they retire, like, I know you know this. I'm retired, and I laughed at what I was going to get for my retirement. Like, I literally burst out laughing. Texas Governor Greg Abbott last year commissioned a teacher vacancy task force to look at how to improve teacher recruitment and retention. Topping its list of recommendations released this February was a significant increase in overall teacher salaries. But state lawmakers failed during their regular session to pass any increase at all. The task force also tackled teachers' working conditions, recommending redesigned schedules that increase time for planning and development. No one tells you that you do all the extras. You put out so much of your time and energy, not just during the school day, but after the school day, on the weekends, developing plans, making sure the kids have what they need. A study by Ed Week Research Center last year found the typical teacher works 54 hours a week. Most spent less than half that time actually teaching students. I was going to have to consistently go through more training to look like I was constantly learning. Y'all, I went through a Ph.D. program. You think I have enough education? And if a teacher is good at what they do, this group says their job just gets harder. The teacher who works hard, the teacher who takes on a mother role, get the most difficult children. They get the tough kids. Those aren't going to be the kids that make the scores on the standardized assessment. But the problem is you don't get any additional assistance. The pandemic only made it all worse. I don't know if anyone's ever tried to teach a third grader on a computer. Yes. So it's insane. Instead of the state stopping and saying, all right, we're two years behind now. We need to help these teachers. They just kept moving forward. And so you feel defeated. Not just moving forward, requiring more, requiring you to work longer, no additional pay. And health concerns, they say, weren't taken seriously. Spencer told us since 2017 he's been living with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a blood cancer, putting him at increased risk during the pandemic. He was initially approved to work from home. But then I started getting emails from the district. And they were like, yeah, it's time for you to get back. So I called somebody in the district and they were like, yeah, do you pray? What does that have to do with anything? What does me praying have to do with me coming back to school? Every teacher here says they saw the effect of increased stress on their health with high blood pressure, anxiety, and panic attacks. I had an anxiety attack on the day of STAR. I thought I had committed treason. You're still expected to maintain mental health when you're giving your all. But don't you know God? We studied all 160 bills proposed this year that would have affected teachers. Most never made it to a vote. And in the end, not a single one of the task force's recommendations became law. We asked this group about several measures the legislature did pass and whether they thought they'd make a difference, like more money for retired teachers. Possibly, yeah. The right to hang an In God We Trust sign in their class. And a specialty license plate that says Texas teachers that you pay $10 for. I would be scared to pay that. It's safe to say they would have preferred a pay raise. That would have helped, yeah. But if you want to get to the bottom of why a record number of teachers in Texas are leaving the profession. It's the disrespect. The disrespect is real. Traditionally, a woman's job teaching has historically come with less prestige than other careers. When I was in college getting my bachelor's, I remember people saying, what are you in college for? I'm like, oh, elementary ed. And they're like, oh, those who can't teach. I got that a lot. It has to be seen as a respected profession, just like being a doctor, a lawyer. And if you think about it, we wouldn't have doctors or lawyers if you didn't have a teacher. While not new, these teachers say the disrespect they experience has in recent years gotten much, much worse. And it's the negative public propaganda against them. Are we indoctrinating people? If I could indoctrinate students, they would show up on time every day. They would speak politely to me and the other students. They would do all of their work on time. As school board battles over masks, books, and diversity have heated up, teachers have become a political target. I have literally had people in my face screaming at me for being a teacher and how we're so greedy and we're doing all these horrible things to kids when all I was doing was literally putting aside my life, my family, my friends to give to these kids. But where is it all coming from? Is it the district administration? Is it the school board? Is it the state leaders? Is it the politicians in general, the parents? It starts at home. Let me give you an example. So at the previous school that I was at, field day, thousands of parents. I'm talking about packed house. We couldn't find parking spaces. But parent conference meeting, calls all day long, nobody answered, maybe three or four concerned parents. I somewhat agree with that, but on the other end, everything you said, yes, all of it. We've got to be a community who actually understands that an educated society makes us all better. If you're complaining about the cashier at the grocery store not understanding how to count your change, then you better be at that school supporting those teachers, supporting those students, and you better be looking at the people you're electing and whether or not they support education. These teachers say it's demoralizing the way state leaders talk about their profession. It's degrading. And I mean, hello, you're our public, you know, you're out there in the news saying that. How do you think that affects everybody? I think it's the way that, you know, a lot of the politicians look at the profession. During COVID, even, you know, close family members, you know, say, man, you guys are really just glorified babysitters. And that's offensive, you know, especially when you're trying to teach and you're trying to make a difference. But I think overall, that's how a lot of politicians look at this field. It's like, hey, you guys, you know, take care of the kids. All that disrespect, they say, can even translate to physical violence. In a study by the American Psychological Association, 14 percent of teachers reported having been physically attacked by a student. My last year teaching, I had been out on leave twice for being attacked by students. One, I had six months of physical therapy for. I still wanted to be there. I still wanted to be with those kids. I still want to be with them today. It's just that the system not only doesn't work for us, it doesn't work for the kids, and I can't be a part of it anymore. It just bothers me that we signed up to do this. I do this because I love numbers. I love teaching kids numbers. It hurts me to know that she was attacked. You know, like, I've heard about my co-workers being attacked. Personally, myself, that was my last straw. Like, I got hit in the face with a beach ball. Out of nowhere, the parent asked me, well, what was going on? What were you doing? What did you say? But you hit me in the face. And as a teacher, I'm expected to just take it. To attract and retain more teachers, this group says, the community and the leaders it elects need to start listening. So smaller classrooms, better pay, have more support in the classroom. I think we're highly qualified to do our job. Let us do it, but give us the things that we need. All these former teachers miss their kids. Every day. And now they wonder who will be left to teach them. The kids made me stay so long. I wanted them to know that they had somebody who was there in their corner. Will someone else be there? I don't know. And that's hard. It's hard to walk away from that.