Facing school shootings and book bans, U.S. teachers have had it
American teachers are the most stressed they’ve been in years as they deal with the fear of increased shootings at schools, along with burdens of curriculum restrictions and being overworked.
More than three quarters of the 2,400 teachers surveyed by the American Federation of Teachers said they are dissatisfied with their current job conditions, the biggest share in data going back eight years. One in three K-12 teachers said their workplace conditions had worsened in the past five years, citing stagnant wages and limitations on topics that they can teach.
“Teachers feel under siege,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said, noting increasing responsibilities and a cycle of worsening conditions as more teachers quit among the reasons why sentiment as deteriorated in the past school year.
Rather than support teachers, politicians “are stoking up culture wars and banning curriculum and books and calling them names,” Weingarten added.
Lawmakers in 42 states have introduced bills banning critical race theory or other discussions of racism and other prejudices from schools, according to an Education Week analysis. Such restrictions have been signed or otherwise turned into law in 17 states.
Concerns over school shootings also featured prominently in the AFT survey, with nearly half of K-12 teachers expressing worry over the possibility of such an incident. Despite 71% reporting that their schools conducts drills, more than two thirds felt their institutions would be unprepared for an attack.
The poll was conducted in June, just a few weeks after 19 students and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. At a state Senate hearing last month, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said police response to the shooter was an “abject failure” and “antithetical to everything we’ve learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre.”
More than a third of teachers said they would likely leave their profession within two years. Nearly three quarters said they would not recommend the role to someone else, and those who had been teaching for 16 or more years were the least likely to recommend teaching as a career. Only 37% said they believed their job as it presently stood was rewarding, the survey showed.
“Teachers want to make a difference in the lives of kids,” said Weingarten. “They want the conditions to change. They want their compensation to change. But they want to teach.”