It’s a public school crisis

Bruce Lear

I was sound asleep when I heard a loud pounding on my front door. It was 7 a.m. on a March Saturday in 1981. I was a second-year teacher in a tiny central Iowa school. I fought the covers getting out of bed as the knocking intensified. 

I stumbled down the stairs and saw my principal envelope in hand waiting on our porch.

It was my early morning introduction to the “March Massacre.”

As the farm crisis burned across Iowa, farmers were losing precious family land while hundreds of teachers were losing their jobs.

I was one of those young teachers.

I was scared.

Now, there’s a new kind of crisis.

It should scare us all.

Many articles claim there’s a national teacher shortage. That’s not true. There is, however, a critical shortage of education professionals willing to work in difficult conditions for an average 20% smaller salaries than other professions with similar education requirements. Economists even have a name for it. They called it the “Teacher pay penalty.”

According to the Learning Policy Institute there are 37,569 teaching vacancies nationwide. The main shortage areas are in special education, science and math. Voluntary resignations account for 90% of these vacancies. That means thousands of students are missing a licensed teacher in their classroom.

Iowa isn’t exempt from this crisis either. According to the Iowa Department of Education, there are 434 full-time equivalent vacancies in the state. The most impacted classrooms are 185 in special education, 35 in music, 28 in math and 28 in science. The remainder of vacancies are spread among other disciplines.

What’s causing teachers to rush for the exits? Surveys show 89% experience workload burnout caused by 54-hour median work weeks, extreme student behavior and non-supportive administrators, lawmakers and parents. These results coupled with sub-par pay creates a perfect storm.

What can be done in Iowa to address this crisis? Here are some suggestions to attract and retain our teachers.

A Classroom Teacher Council

Governor-elect Rob Sand should form a “Classroom Teacher Council” focused on attracting and retaining teachers. This council should include new and veteran teachers from different size schools and from all parts of Iowa. This teacher council should meet with Governor Sand and legislative leaders throughout the year. 

Stop the attacks

Teachers don’t deserve to be a political wedge issue to gain a few more votes. The only indoctrination teachers do are encouraging students to do their homework, show up on time, listen and treat everyone with respect. Legislators need to stop undermining teachers.

Fund public schools

If we neglect maintenance for our cars, we’re soon walking to get help. Routine maintenance costs money. For over a decade, Iowa public schools have been neglected and funded below inflation. The legislature needs to return to bipartisan support for funding public schools, and then local school districts should use salary schedules to ensure across the board raises for teachers. It’s tempting to only raise the starting salaries. That’s a mistake.

Stop adding mandates

We’ve all seen the guy at the buffet with an overflowing plate.  Meatballs and pizza slices fly from his plate as he walks to his table. Teachers’ plates are also too full. Legislators and administrators should resist adding more. Teachers need time to prepare during the day and paperwork should be minimized.

Give teacher’s a voice

Public sector collective bargaining was gutted in 2017. That was also the beginning of widespread classroom vacancies. The law was originally passed in 1974 with bipartisan support and signed by a Republican governor. It’s time to renew and refresh it.

We survived the “March Massacre” in the 1980s. We can fix this crisis with bipartisan support for an Iowa treasure, our public schools.

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City. He has been connected to public schools for 38 years. He taught for 11 years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association Regional Director for 27 years until he retired.