Teacher shortages are getting worse because of non-education-based policymakers

via photo editor Kate Rodgers

Recently, the teacher shortage has gotten worse across the United States. According to Economic Policy Institute graphical data, by 2025 there will be an estimated 100,000 decrease in the supply of teachers, and 100,000 increase in the demand for teachers that are qualified in every aspect. As a result, budget cuts, less qualified teachers, and more work outside contractual hours are to be expected.

Some contributors to these problems include the Parental Rights in Education Bill (“Don’t Say Gay Bill”) and the attempted Indiana House Bill 1134. According to NPR, The Parental Rights in Education bill, signed in by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, makes it so “public school teachers in Florida are banned from holding classroom instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity” (Diaz, 2022). 

Across social media outlets, you can see teachers quitting, resigning, and explaining why they could not stay in the field anymore. Most of the time, teachers are telling their students that they are leaving and not coming back. One impact of this is students losing trusted adults and ultimately suffering as a result of so many teachers leaving.

On platforms such as TikTok, teachers have been resigning or following malicious compliance in cases like Florida. Teachers have taken to social media to explain that they will not be discussing sexual orientation or gender identity. 

The problem with this bill is that Gov. Ron DeSantis serves with no background in education. He is one of many policymakers creating education-based bills which take away safe spaces, where ultimately teachers resign because of it.

Another bill, almost passed, is Indiana House Bill 1134. According to 13WTHR, “Expanding ‘parents’ rights’ in the classroom became a touchstone of Republican Glenn Youngkin’s campaign during the tense Virginia gubernatorial election with Democrat Terry McAuliffe” (Putman, 2022). 

The pandemic has changed how students learn and changed the reactions teachers get. At the beginning of the pandemic, teachers were more respected because parents had to partly take over education and figure out logistics. However, as the pandemic proceeded, parents wanted to force schools to teach a certain way for their children, causing more conflict across districts. 

The problem is that parents have a right to know what education consists of, but they do not have a right to dictate what parts of history their children learn. If parents want to homeschool their children or send them to a private school to learn the content, they. But, especially in a teacher shortage, parents should not have control over what teachers teach. 

The Indiana House Bill 1134 would have made it so that all teachers needed to turn in all of the next year's school lesson plans by Jun. 31. Had this bill been passed, there would have likely been no pay for extra work; it would have fallen outside the contractual hours that teachers had.

The teacher shortage is being made increasingly worse as policymakers without a background in education are creating policies that are making teachers resign, not benefiting students, and taking away safe spaces for students. 

I imagine that many education majors in all colleges are second-guessing their choice of career. Not only do they have to fight against policies that are harming their students, but they are personally unable to follow policy, and have to resign for their mental health.

As a future educator, one of the most heartbreaking words I have heard from a professor was, “Don’t smile until December with your students.” At that moment in time... I was upset, and I refuse to allow that to be a continued idea with my own students. Yes, there are times to be serious, but to not smile? That’s what makes professors disliked across campuses, with students viewing them as rude.

This is not the field that I was proud of in 2016 when I decided to make a difference in education for history because of role models who changed my outlook on the “bad apple teachers.” I can only hope that things will change for the better, but there is no guarantee with non-educator-based policymakers in charge.