School districts in the United States are experiencing a crisis: they don’t have enough teachers.
For students and parents across the country, the current teacher shortage has had considerable effects. It is disheartening for many to know that students are walking into classrooms on the first day of school with only a computer available to teach them what they need to know for their classes.
According to the North Carolina Justice Center, 5,095 classrooms were vacant at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year. This number will only increase in the coming year, as there has been a noticeable pattern of growing teacher vacancies in the state since 2019 — and the issue only appears to be getting worse. These teacher vacancies are just as critical for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. As of June 28, 2023, the district has five hundred vacant teaching positions.
There are several reasons as to why the state is experiencing so many teacher vacancies. One of the most notable reasons is teacher pay. The average starting salary for teachers is $37,127, and the average salary for all teachers is $57,805. Many have to wait a considerable amount of time before they have a suitable paycheck to support a family. Seventeen percent of teachers have a second job to compensate for this low salary.
Despite teachers’ low salaries, these educators still put in incredible amounts of effort for their students to receive a suitable education. Most spend hours outside of the classroom grading and lesson planning, and provide office hours after the school day for students who need extra assistance.
The issue, however, doesn’t stop with the salaries of teachers. Many educators feel unsupported by the school administration and state legislature. Mrs. Stonehouse, an English Second Language teacher at North Mecklenburg High School, spoke about the challenges she has faced as a teacher. She alluded to how it can be frustrating for teachers to uphold certain policies in the classroom, and then receive limited support from higher ups when further disciplinary action needs to be taken. However, Mrs. Stonehouse noted that, “there has been improvement this year.”
On a state level, decisions are being made that play a role in how supported teachers feel in their classrooms. Mrs. Stonehouse spoke about how at one point, teachers with masters' degrees received higher pay rates. However, this is no longer the case, and she wonders how the field of education no longer financially values this higher education in its teachers. This example is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the impacts of state legislative decisions on school teachers.
Teacher vacancies are widespread across both the country and North Carolina itself. This issue doesn’t stem from one source, but rather an accumulation of frustrations and pressures placed on teachers. Fixing this issue requires something to be done on an administrative and a legislative level. Mrs. Stonehouse explained that teachers are “doing their best with what [they] are given.” To fill these vacant teacher positions, teachers must be given more. 🆅