77% Of Texas Teachers Surveyed Said They Seriously Consider Quitting Teacher Altogether

The thankless job of being a teacher is leading many to consider quitting the profession completely.

“Results from a new online survey of K-12 teachers in Texas, released on Thursday, shows most “seriously considered” leaving the profession this year, a 19% increase from two years ago.

For its third annual survey on teacher satisfaction, the Charles Butt Foundation last spring sent an online questionnaire to 1,291 Texas public school teachers who were randomly selected from the Texas Education Agency’s 2020 roster of teachers in the state. All of them responded.

The Charles Butt Foundation is a nonprofit organization named after the chair and CEO of H-E-B, the largest privately held employer in Texas. The foundation’s goal is to make public education more equitable across the state through community partnerships.

Of those surveyed, 77% of them seriously considered leaving the profession in 2022, a 19% jump from the 2020 results and a 9% increase from last year. Among these teachers, 93% have taken steps to leave such as preparing resumes or conducting job interviews within the past year.

‘That’s a huge, startling number,’ said Shari B. Albright, president of the Charles Butt Foundation. ‘We need for our public schools to not only survive, but thrive and flourish.’

Victoria Wang, a senior research associate at the foundation, warns that when teachers are not supported, that impact is felt elsewhere at a local school.

‘Schools are not just a place where kids go and they learn math and reading,’ Wang said. ‘It’s where they learn how to interact with each other. It’s where they learn how to be in community with each other.'”

For the rest of the story, visit the Texas Tribune here.