Tuesday 2 August 2022 10:24 PM Iowa schools are offering $50,000 incentive for retiring teachers to STAY for ... trends now
Veteran teachers have been fleeing Iowa schools at such an alarming rate that the Des Moines School District is now paying them $50,000 to stay for at least one more year.
Buffeted by culture war clashes and burnout, Iowa educators have had enough and are checking out in droves, leaving the public school system depleted of teachers for the next year.
More than 500 teachers resigned or retired from the Des Moines public school system this summer alone, according to Axios. And this summer is better than last, the news outlet reported.
In an effort to end the exodus, Iowa's largest school system has offered teachers 60 years old or older with 15 years in the classroom an extra $50,000 to stay on for the 2022-2023 school year.
The Des Moines School District held a job fair recently trying to fill the 150 open positions before the school year starts
Des Moines public school teachers union head, Joshua Brown, said that teachers are burnt out because of the culture wars
Even after 58 teachers agreed to stay on an extra year and delay retirement, the city school district is still short 100 support staff
With less than a month to go before classroom doors open for the year, Des Moines schools are still down 50 instructors and an estimated 100 support staff.
Statewide, there are a staggering 5,400 school jobs open, according to Teach Iowa, an Hawkeye State education employment service. More than 1,600 of those openings were for teachers.
The desperate school district recently held a job fair to encourage applicants for the open positions.
Des Moines, pictured here, lost 500 teachers this summer alone. Statewide Iowa has 1,500 job openings in the public school system
We're trying to staff up as much as possible so we're ready for next month when our kids come back to the classroom,' Des Moines School District spokesman Phil Roeder said.
The shortage of teachers and staff could mean that afterschool programs will be canceled or that classes will be combined, creating large class sizes, which have been found to decrease learning.
The problem isn't just in Iowa. Teachers across the country give their jobs an F grade.
A national survey by the American Federation of Teachers, a union with 1.7 million members, found an 80 percent dissatisfaction
