U.S. Schools Notice Influx of Retiring Teachers During COVID-19 Pandemic

It seems more and more teachers are planning to retire. This comes as the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted controversy on sending students and staff back to school.

Schools around the U.S. have noticed an influx of teachers retiring or taking a leave of absence. The New York State teacher retirement system reported that there has been a 20% jump in retirements. This jump took place just during the summer of this year, Fox Business said.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), said teacher shortages always existed. However, he added that they could go up to 30% higher “dependent on how a jurisdiction has handled COVID.”

USA Today reported that “a full third of teachers told Education Week they were somewhat or very likely to leave their job this year — compared with just 8% who leave the profession in a typical year.”

“[E]xperts say as the economic crisis decimates state tax revenue and forces states to slash budgets, it’s more and more likely the nation won’t have enough teachers to staff schools even once reopening is safe,” reported USA Today.

“Without a [federal] rescue package, the layoffs are coming, even if they’re not happening right away in September,” said Dan Goldhaber, director of the Center for Education Data and Research at the University of Washington. “Across the country, school districts are wrestling with this now.”

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