‘We’re at a tipping point’: A crisis in teaching threatens reform efforts in Maryland

Burned-out educators across Maryland are leaving the classroom for other professions or retiring early due to pandemic stress, exacerbating a crisis just as the state launches its most ambitious school overhaul plan in a generation. 

A year ago, the Maryland General Assembly adopted a sweeping reform bill aimed at boosting the state’s public schools to among the best in the nation.

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a 10-year plan that will cost the state $3.8 billion per year, is expected to bring significant changes to the state’s education system, ranging from increasing teacher pay to more support for schools with high concentrations of low-income students. 

But its implementation is facing a threat from the labor pressures in education.

“People are barely hanging on,” said Fareeha Waheed, a special educator at Eutaw-Marshburn Elementary and vice president of the Baltimore Teachers Union.

Staffing shortages have added stress for educators who are already dealing with an “endless list of concerns,” she said. 

Throughout the pandemic, educators have faced risk of infection, chronic instability, increased workloads, emotional stress, and – more recently – blame from parents and politicians for masks and school closings. 

“It’s a really high stress job with really low pay,” Waheed said, “Educators feel underappreciated and, frankly, often disregarded.” 

For many teachers, the job has become too taxing. 

Nationally, employment in local government education is down by 359,000 since February 2020, per the latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In December alone, about 143,000 workers in the education sector quit their jobs, the Labor Department reported.

In Maryland, a majority of educators report that they are more likely to retire early or leave the profession due to staff shortages, large classes, and high stress levels, according to a survey by the Maryland State Education Association. 

In the poll, which surveyed 4,746 public school employees between Jan. 14-24, 96% of educators reported that staff shortages are a serious or very serious concern. 

Burnout and high workloads are the top issues facing Maryland educators, according to the survey. Due to pandemic challenges, 60% of educators said they are more likely to leave the profession or retire earlier than planned. 

Burnout even among veteran teachers

Policy-makers in Maryland were troubled about the state of the teaching profession well before the pandemic. In 2016, the state formed the Maryland Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, chaired by former university system chancellor William E. “Brit” Kirwan. Years of study by the so-called Kirwan Commission resulted in recommendations adopted by the General Assembly in 2021.

But the higher salaries, additional health workers and commitment to equity outlined in the Blueprint won’t come fast enough for many educators experiencing the brunt of the pandemic.

At Eutaw-Marshburn Elementary, even veteran teachers are experiencing burnout, Waheed said. 

“Every year, new teachers are stressed out,” she said, “This job is impossible. But this year, it’s everybody saying that, it’s not just the new teachers.”

“I think all of our mental health has been deeply impacted by the pandemic,” she said. 

Blame from parents and politicians over school closings and COVID directives has added to the anxiety, teachers say. 

“I feel like in the first part of the pandemic everyone was saying ‘teachers are heroes,’ but over the last year, as teachers have fought for different directives about safety measures, I do feel like teachers have become a huge scapegoat,” said Mark Miazga, an English teacher at Baltimore City College. 

Miazga has been teaching at the school for 21 years. 

“If this was my first year, or second year, or third year teaching, I don’t think that I could do it,” Miazga said. 

At City College, a lack of substitute teachers is the biggest problem, Miazga said. “There’s always been a shortage of subs, but it’s never been like this,” he said. 

But finding more substitute teachers wouldn’t solve the issue, educators say.

“We’re at a tipping point for our educators,” said Cheryl Bost, president of the Maryland State Education Association.

“The biggest thing is we need to listen to our educators,” she said. “Whether it’s our bus drivers, our custodians, this isn’t just a teacher issue, this is an every job classification issue.”

“Too many people outside of our classrooms and our work are making decisions for us and not listening as to how we see remedies,” Bost said.

Bost suggests additional pay, lowering the ratio of students to teachers, making teaching jobs more attractive for graduates interested in teaching, and focusing on retaining teachers. 

The Blueprint will boost teacher pay, requiring a starting salary of at least $60,000 for educators by 2026. 

In addition to increased pay, “we have to seriously reevaluate the way that we recruit and retain teachers,” Waheed said.

She also highlighted the importance of recruiting teachers of color, who are underrepresented in the profession. 

“I think we have enough people in the country who could become teachers, but I think the problem really is that we need to change the perception of being an educator,” Waheed said.

“We need more people who want to choose becoming a teacher, particularly people of color, especially Black male teachers, because our population is growing and our minority students are going to be the majority,” she added.

Recruiting teachers of color

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 80% of public school teachers identified as white during the 2017-18 school year, the most recent year for which the center has published demographic data about them.

Only 7% of teachers identified as Black, per NCES data.  

With pandemic stressors, the teacher diversity problem may get worse.

Black teachers were more than twice as likely as other teachers to say they planned to leave their jobs at the end of the 2020-2021 school year, according to a report by the RAND corporation. 

In Baltimore City, where 74.3% of students in the public school system are Black and only 40% of City Schools’ teachers identify as Black, recruiting teachers of color is important, Waheed said.

The current educator shortage paints a dismal picture for the future of our education system, educators say.

“People go into these jobs because they have passion for students and making their lives successful. They love what they do,” Bost said.

“So for a teacher, a paraeducator, a custodian, to walk off the job or say they don’t want to be there anymore, to me, is more disheartening than any other profession,” she said.