Value teachers, old and new alike

Is the loss of veteran teachers one of the state’s primary issues concerning education?

After being reelected to the Orange County Board of Commissioners in March, board member Penny Rich told Chapelboro. com, that “public education is the number one hit for [the North Carolina] General Assembly, and we need to collaborate with the school board more and figure out how we can keep the teachers that we have here. Our veteran teachers are amazing.”

I agree with much of Rich’s statement, but it does not fully address the problems North Carolina faces regarding education. The loss of veteran teachers is one of many symptoms caused by flaws in the state’s educational system.

According to a report published by the state Board of Education, the teacher turnover rate between 2014 and 2015 was 14.84 percent, the highest it has ever been.

When separated into different categories, the turnover rate was even more informative. Career status teachers—those who are “not subjected to the requirement of annual appointment”—had a turnover rate of 13.37 percent. First-year teachers had a turnover rate of 20.81 percent.

It makes sense that first-year teachers would have higher attrition rates than older ones. Some may find that they do not enjoy the profession; teachers attempting to start a family might follow their spouses to another location; others may just not be rehired due to poor job performance.

However, as a high school student, I have been exposed to the sentiment that joining the profession is a challenging process. Perhaps the main issue is not that veteran teachers are leaving, but that the state is making it too difficult for newer teachers to become veterans in the first place.

One of my old teachers used the analogy that public education treats new teachers like tubes of toothpaste. It attempts to squeeze as much value out of them as it can, before “discarding” them. By doing so, a school avoids retaining a significant amount of older teachers and thus avoids having to provide the benefits that they require.

While the analogy clearly does not apply to all schools in North Carolina, it has some merit. Teaching is hard, and lately our educational system has not been making it any easier.

samnielsen65@gmail.com