Carson City School District experiencing teacher shortage; nationwide data points to burnout, low pay and behavior issues as culprits

Across the country, mass teacher shortages have been felt in seemingly every district, and the capital city is not immune.

There are currently 46 unfilled positions throughout the district, broken down as:

• 15 certified teachers
• 9 certified special education teachers
• 22 classified positions (1 administrative assistant, 5 custodians, 1 deaf/hard of hearing interpreter, 1 maintenance, 3 nutrition, 7 transportation)

Teacher positions by study of currently unfilled include: elementary school, middle school science, middle school culinary arts, middle school math, middle school English, and middle school social studies.

“To assist with the current teaching shortage, CCSD has re-hired some of our recently retired educators and increased the pay for substitute teachers,” said Dan Sadler, associate superintendent of Human Resources for the district.

Additionally, some school sites have “shuffled” class schedules around to absorb the vacancies and provide support in creative ways, such as by “buying teacher preps,” which essentially means paying teachers to cover another classroom during their prep-time, which is generally spent grading, attendance, and lesson planning.

“CCSD has a tiered system of substitute teachers currently assigned in our schools (emergency subs, daily subs, super subs, long term subs),” said Sadler. “CCSD is always looking for additional people who may be interested in supporting our schools.”

In neighboring Washoe County, it was announced only days before the beginning of school that the district was short by more than 200 for classified teachers, and the district had to reassign multiple administrative positions and TOSAs (Teacher on Special Assignment) to cover classrooms.

There are a lot of issues contributing to why there are teacher shortages throughout the country, including burnout, low pay, behavior issues from both students, parents and the public alike, and more.

A Look at the Issues

There are currently over half a million fewer educators in America’s public schools today than there were prior to the pandemic.

Over 90 percent of teachers have reported that burnout is a serious problem within the teaching profession, and 55 percent have stated they are ready to leave their profession earlier than previously planned.

“This is a five-alarm crisis,” said National Education Association President Becky Pringle. “We are facing an exodus as more than half of our nation’s teachers and other school staff are now indicating they will be leaving education sooner than planned. If we’re serious about getting every child the support they need to thrive, our elected leaders across the nation need to address this crisis now.”

Behavior Issues: Student, Parent, Public

76 percent of teachers stated that student behavioral issues as well as a lack of respect from parents and the public are serious issues.

When it comes to the behavior of students, 87 percent of public schools agreed that these issues stem directly from the pandemic, and include classroom disruptions, acts of disrespect toward teachers and staff, rowdiness outside of the classroom, and the prohibited use of electronic devices.

Public schools reported needing more support for student and/or staff mental health (79 percent), training on supporting students’ socio-emotional development (70 percent), hiring of more staff (60 percent), and training on classroom management strategies (51 percent).

Across the country, and locally, school board meetings and public schools have been over run by a “tiny but extremely vocal minority” of individuals who spouted unsubstantiated claims that teachers were “indoctrinating” students into hating America, forcing vaccines upon them, and general abuses.

Carson City board members and educators faced these issues as well, with public commenters, the vast majority of whom did not have school-aged children, attending board meetings for months at a time stating that the schools were “killing children” by requiring them to wear masks, pushing Marxism on students, and asking for school board members to be fired because the COVID-19 vaccine contains “aborted fetal cells, monkey kidney cells, E-Coli, animal parts, spermicide, and more.”

While issues surrounding masks and vaccines have seemingly fallen away in recent months, school boards across the country are facing a new push from these vocal minorities: banning books.

Book banning is at an all time historic high, with a record-breaking 1,145 books being banned by school districts across the country between July 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022.

The books currently being banned throughout the country almost exclusively focus on LGBTQ+ issues, followed by the history of racism and oppression felt by certain groups within the U.S., such as Native and Black Americans.

Low Pay, Less Teaching Degrees

Currently, 78 percent of teachers have stated that low pay is a serious issue, and when it comes to pay, U.S. teachers now are making less than their counterparts 50 years ago.

In 1972, the average teacher in America was making $10,174 per year, which, in today’s dollars, is the equivalent of over $72,000.

Today, however, that number has lowered to $65,000 — with a huge range between states. For example, the average teacher salary in New York is almost $90,000 per year, while Mississippi teachers make an average of only $47,000.

Nevada teachers fall somewhere in between with an average salary of $56,676, and a typical range of between $47,000 to $69,000. By comparison, in the 70s, Nevada teachers made the equivalent of $65,315 in today’s dollars.

In addition, the number of college students engaging in education teaching programs has simply, and drastically, decreased.

Between 2008 and 2019, the number of students graduating from teaching programs decreased by over a third. Up until the early 2010s, the number of these degrees were “relatively stable,” but began dropping quickly after.

Reasons attributed to this decrease in interest are linked to poor pay, heavy workloads, as well as “political demonization.”

Regardless of the reason behind the teacher shortages, one thing is clear: with more teachers leaving the profession than on boarding, those who will suffer the most are the students left in the gap.