Teachers around the country protest by wearing red and holding signs indicating a need for quality teachers staying in the profession. Photo by LaTerrian McIntosh on Unsplash 

The impact of teacher pay and teachers leaving their jobs has significantly affected students and administration at many schools. At Southeast, the Special Education teacher Ms. Nicole Lester states her opinion on teacher pay. “Teacher pay is a major issue, especially in North Carolina.  I have been teaching for over 20 years.  If you factor in all the times my pay has been frozen, all the times I have not received my step increase, cost of living adjustments and changes in benefits, I am earning less now than in the past.” said Lester.

Due to teacher pay averaging  $58,292 a year, leaves teachers having a difficult time budgeting. Teachers also fund many supplies for their classrooms which leads to more cost. School supplies for their students, teachers normally spend anywhere from $500 to $900. 

Lester states her stress over how much she is having to spend on school supplies, stating “Schools are underfunded.  Teachers often spend hundreds of dollars per year on supplies for their own classrooms, share Amazon wishlists with their friends and families, spend their free time writing grants for field trips and supplies, and write Donors Choose grants for supplies their schools cannot or will not provide.” 

Teacher workload has increased over the years causing  average teachers working in the school building for 10 hours or more. On average, teachers spend around 53 to 54 hours grading work, making lessons, completing various school-wide duties while still finding time to serve their students. 

Southeast Alamance teacher Angela Dalton states “Every year they give us additional workload and cut costs with printers, etc that cause more work on us.”

Because teachers have such a high workload around 44% of teachers experience a burnout at some point in their career. When discussing burnout, Dalton continued to express concern. “Yes in it now with no incentives people lose hope and joy and start searching elsewhere. I have seen so many leave the profession that were amazing teachers. The students have suffered in terms of learning because of this. Our profession has also invited in people with little ethics and that has become a major issue.” said Dalton.

Both teachers, Ms. Lester and Ms. Dalton both state that it's the students that are what bring them back to their jobs even if they are experiencing a burnout. Lester says “I have had days where I fantasize about driving until I run out of gas instead of pulling into my school parking lot, or calling in sick just to catch up on sleep.  Usually our love for the students we work with is the motivation to keep us going, but we all have hard days.  Every conversation I have had with a younger teacher on the brink of quitting has always stopped when they say I want to leave, but I won’t leave my students.” said Lester.

Southeast teacher Jacob Krocke sees the challenge of teaching in the current climate. “I think the challenge with being a teacher is that saying 'no' to tasks that should belong to someone else is often accepted by a teacher because we want opportunities to be available to our students. This has resulted in Schools in general and teachers taking on tasks that are more than 'just teaching.'" Krocke said.

Based on this data, teachers turnover is a concerning issue; however, even though teachers are going through more stress,  all teachers interviewed came to the same conclusion:  Students are what keeps bringing them back to their jobs.