We are going to have a mass exodus of educators in the next 2-3 years.....

I’m not sure if anyone has seen this on other subreddits or other platforms/social media but there are a lot of teachers and educators signaling that they are not going to stay in the field, especially if in person teaching is going to start again this fall. <br><br>My experience: I’m in k-12 and our district was one of the last hold outs for in person. We went in person 2nd semester. We’ve had a great experience thus far but the amount of work to put into teaching in person and online, while having students quarantine, fans in the room, finesse around room arrangements, lunch, busses, contacts tracing, etc. has been a monumental effort. <br><br>I’ve had several colleagues that have indicated they are going to see it through to the end of the year but then will retire earlier then they had originally anticipated. I’ve had other colleagues that have told me that they are going to teach summer school, and then they are done. <br><br>I’ve had several students that have told me that they want to be teachers but not anymore because they see how hard this job has been. We have so many student teachers right now because of the delay in their college education and they are all like “yeah, no thanks.” <br><br>I personally love teaching, but the last year has been a steep and difficult hill. I don’t know if I can do this anymore. I’m currently applying to other jobs but I’m not sure if I want to stay in education. I’m willing to take a hit to my pension and everything but man I am just so burned out it isn’t even funny. <br><br>It’s not all doom and gloom, but I am so happy I got into teaching at 22, right out of college. I am now 45 and have a long list of skills that I can apply to many other fields and jobs. The kids of younger teachers aren’t going to have the luxuries of growing up while their parent figure out a career that they may or may not like. Some of my colleagues that are in their earlier 30s are in a really rough spot because they have obligations that younger teachers didn’t have yet. House payments, car payments, older kids, etc. Most of these folks don’t have any other skills to enter into another field. <br><br>My district is also still in the early stages of hiring, but is having trouble finding qualified candidates. I know a lot of my colleagues aren’t leaving but with the amount of people that I’ve heard signaling that they are leaving, it’s going to be tough. <br><br>My point is, I think that this past year has been an accelerant is causing educators to find new careers. Some just need to get through the year, others are already gone. I think in 5 years, we are going to hear stories about how there was a massive shortage of teachers from 2025-2030 and how districts had to be really creative to find qualified educators.