Teacher shortages which could be compounded by the growing disfavor of the government-run education system left one principal turned homeschool mom warning about what that exodus means for the environment children are being left with and the “deeper rooted issues” to be faced.
(Video: Fox News Digital)
For those still in doubt as to the priorities of the American education system, a look back at last month’s rainbow supplications to the altar of woke stand as a fine example of how far the Department of Education has strayed from reading, writing and arithmetic.
The leftist agenda in schooling has not been without consequence and, as discussed with Fox News Digital by former Oregon private school principal Mandy Davis, the factors that led to her abandoning her field to homeschool her children are driving a decline.
“I saw a lot of gaps in our school system and the direction that the schools are moving, both with student behavior and teacher shortages and what’s happening inside the classroom,” she explained. “It was not an environment that I felt promoted learning and promoted the life that I wanted my children to experience.”
Having spent 14 years in education, advancing her career from teacher to principal, Davis quit in June 2022, joining an exodus of roughly 300,000 who had done the same between Feb. 2020 and May 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“Every time one of those amazing, qualified and caring educators leaves the field, it just it gets you a little bit because you know how many kids they were serving,” she told Fox News Digital.
“There are teachers that are burning out and are saying ‘the classroom is not a safe place for me, the classroom is not somewhere where I can do what I set out to do and teach and have accountability over my classroom,'” the mother of three explained. “Those are concerning.”
As previously reported, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten had addressed the ongoing and growing teacher shortage by attempting to blame conservative parents who have spoken out against the indoctrination of kids. As she had claimed at the beginning of the year, “The truth about America’s teacher shortage – it worsened during the pandemic – because of burnout & ‘the culture wars that put teachers and staff under constant scrutiny over any conversations involving history, racism and sexuality.'”
Randi Weingarten can’t hide from backlash after blaming teacher shortage on ‘constant scrutiny’https://t.co/tarGl2MSUp
— American Wire News (@americanwire_) January 5, 2023
What the union boss dismissed, Davis considered “deeper rooted issues” that countered her drive to be a teacher in the first place. “Initially, that’s what got me into education, was wanting to be a change for as many students as I could. Coming to the realization that there are just these deeper rooted issues throughout the system that can prevent even teachers still today from doing their job and doing what they set out to do, it ultimately did lead me to leave.”
She further voiced her concern over measures to fill vacancies with unqualified emergency hires that can take on full-time roles for up to a year without a license or prior experience as is the case in Oregon where, according to the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission, 438 individuals had been hired in that capacity for the 2021-2022 school year. That number had only been 181 in the previous school year.
“If our solution is ‘let’s just bring in somebody,’ I’m not sure that’s an environment we want our children staying in,” Davis lamented.
The Merrimack College Teacher Survey, having polled 1,200 teachers in Jan. 2023, found the situation to be looking far worse in the near term as over a third have made clear their likelihood to quit in the next two years if the environment doesn’t improve.
“I’m not surprised by that number at all, especially the way that we’re trending. I think it’s important for parents to not only see it as a concern of why are all these teachers leaving, but to ask who is going to come in, and what’s the solution going to be,” the former principal warned.
As for those former peers who may be considering their own departure, Davis said, “If there are other educators wondering what they should do, I would just say to lean into your family first and think through what your children need. And if that’s being met, then it just becomes more of a personal decision.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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