NC has a teacher shortage. Is ‘public vitriol’ against educators one of the reasons?
“Public vitriol” against teachers was blamed Thursday as a reason contributing to North Carolina’s growing teacher shortage.
Over the past two years, some teachers have been accused of politically indoctrinating students and been criticized for things such as supporting school face mask mandates. The impact of this public criticism was a recurring theme Thursday during the Public School Forum of North Carolina’s virtual discussion on the state’s school workforce shortage.
“The demands of teaching in the pandemic have been tough enough on their own,” said Jennie Bryan, a 2021 North Carolina Teacher of the Year finalist from Brunswick County. “But then when we combine that with the targeting of teachers’ professional and academic integrity, the creation of controversies out of our curriculum in our highly politicized times has really almost absolutely broken the spirit of many of my colleagues.
“So part of what we as a society have to address in thinking about teacher recruitment and retention is the tone of our conversations surrounding the teaching profession.”
Teachers are being ‘vilified’
Teachers have come under fire in North Carolina and nationally. For instance, Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson released a report in August accusing some teachers of “abusing their profession” to indoctrinate students.
North Carolina is among the states where Republican lawmakers passed legislation that would put rules on how teachers discuss racism and history and would require posting of teacher lesson plans. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the legislation in September, saying it pushes “conspiracy-laden politics.”
Some local school boards, including Johnston County, have passed policies that they say are designed to prevent Critical Race Theory from being taught.
Tre Woods, a junior at UNC-Wilmington, said the “rising public vitriol” against public schools and teachers is being noticed by college students deciding on their future careers.
“Never have I seen on the news or in the media, public school teachers being vilified for teaching,” said Woods, who is studying to become a teacher. “That’s not an exciting prospect to choose to enter an environment where you’re subjugating yourself to lower pay and guaranteeing that you’re going to have confrontations with parents and maybe even colleagues who are misinformed about the work that we do and the things that we teach our children.”
Bryan said the public attacks come at a time when teacher morale was waning even before the coronavirus pandemic started.
Teacher shaming?
Sen. Deanna Ballard, a Watauga County Republican, said she agreed that the tone of public conversation should be better. But Ballard questioned Bryan about whether some of the problems may be from teachers silencing each other.
“Would you agree that there’s some teacher shaming that goes on within the school community itself?” Ballard said.
“Because I do feel like I have had teachers reach out to me that have shared behind the scenes concern and fear that they’re afraid to say anything because of other teachers.”
Bryan acknowledged that some teachers fear speaking out because of retribution. But she said that those fears may be based on unfounded fears and paranoia.
“We are all on the same team,” Bryan answered. “We may have disagreements about the best way, about some educational philosophies, but ultimately we are on the same team.”
Rep. Ashton Clemmons, a Greensboro Democrat and former principal, said it breaks her heart that educators feel they’re being vilified.
“It is on every single one of us to ensure educators, no matter what their political belief is, are not vilified by anyone,” Clemmons said.
Schools are in ‘survival mode’
The Public School Forum of North Carolina advocates for better schools and more public funding for education. On Thursday, it released a progress report on how the state met the group’s top education goals in 2021, including dealing with school staffing shortages.
“Public schools are now essentially operating in survival mode,” according to the report.
The forum gave the state credit for things such as increasing teacher pay by an average of 5% over a two-year period and creating a $100 million fund to raise local teacher salary supplements. But the forum said the state still needs to make significant progress to ensure every student gets a high-quality teacher.
The group urged support for the Leandro plan, which calls for significant increases in state investment in public schools and early childhood programs. Several school districts have asked the state Supreme Court to allow enforcement of a lower judge’s order to fund the plan.
Teachers in danger of ‘burnout’
The report comes at a time when public schools in North Carolina are seeing thousands of vacant positions. It’s forced the remaining workers to step in and do more during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The situation is so dire that state employees are being encouraged to volunteer as substitutes at schools.
“The shortages that we’re experiencing now are worse than I think most of us could have predicted and it goes well beyond teachers,” said Lauren Fox, the forum’s senior director of policy. “We’re seeing shortages of bus drivers, substitutes, custodians, psychologists and other positions as well.”
Eugenia Floyd, the 2021 North Carolina Teacher of the Year from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system, said teachers and principals across the state are doing extra things such as driving school buses and serving lunches due to the shortages. This is on top of regular duties, Floyd said.
“These are the things that lead to burnout,” Floyd said. “Those are the things that make us even feel discouraged in our field because we know that our kids need so much more from us.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2022 at 1:35 PM with the headline "NC has a teacher shortage. Is ‘public vitriol’ against educators one of the reasons?."
