Teachers Are Burned Out and It’s Not Their Fault

Teachers are burning out faster than healthcare workers, retail employees, and police.

June 17, 2024

Teachers in K-12 schools reported the highest rate of burnout of all sectors in a 2022 Gallup poll. More than four in ten teachers said they felt burned out at work “always or “very often.” The result for teachers was eight points higher than a similar 2020 poll but only increased by two points on average for other sectors.

When burned-out teachers leave education for other jobs, their already overburdened colleagues are forced to pick up the slack, increasing their workloads. As schools struggle to recruit new candidates to fill a growing number of vacancies, the U.S. K-12 education system is teetering on the verge of collapse.

The education system in the U.S. is wearing out teachers faster than it can replace them. Rand, a nonprofit policy research institution, released a survey in 2023 that stated 23 percent of teachers said they were likely to leave their job by the end of the year. The survey cited stress, disappointment with the job, salary, and number of working hours as the top reasons teachers intended to leave the profession.

Teachers Are Worn Out From Heavy Workloads and Long Hours

Sydney Mohr teaches 7th grade literacy at McGuire Middle School in Lakeville, Minnesota. On top of teaching 40 hours per week in the classroom, she works as many as 12 extra hours per week on tasks such as grading assignments and preparing lesson plans. She said due to stalled contract negotiations, Lakeville teachers decided in January to implement a concept known as “work-to-rule” where they work only their contracted number of hours as a form of protest.

Independent School District 194 and the Lakeville teachers union, Education Minnesota-Lakeville (EML), have been in negotiations since their previous contract expired on July 30, 2023. Teacher salaries are a key point of discussion, with EML pointing out that ISD 194 teachers are underpaid compared to neighboring districts.

Mohr said she has felt some benefits to leaving the classroom on time at the end of the school day. She has used the time she would otherwise spend grading assignments with reading books or finding other ways to decompress.

“I feel like a lot of teachers carry that stress and carry their work with them when they leave. Learning to turn it off, put the work away, and physically finding that time for yourself is what keeps you going in this job,” she said.

However, work-to-rule is difficult to maintain long-term due to teacher workloads. The ungraded assignments will still be on teachers’ desks in the morning even if they go home when the last bell rings. Some also feel like they’re doing a disservice to their students by not being as prepared as they would like to be.

“That’s why so many people haven’t been sticking to it, because it hurts us,” Mohr said. “It hurts our students, and we know that.”

Supportive Administrators Can Have a Large Influence On Teacher Morale

Erin Austin is a National Board-Certified French teacher at Poudre High School in Fort Collins, Colorado. She taught for 11 years in Independent School District 194 in Lakeville, Minnesota before moving to Denver. Her decision to move was due in part to her frustrations with district administration and she says she is happier for it.

“I have a great principal who is supportive of anything new and innovative that we want to try. In Lakeville, it’s like everything had to go through the school board and in my view that’s what’s wrong with public education. It’s being run by people who don’t have a clue about education,” she said.

Austin does not put blame for burnout on educators themselves. Burnout goes deeper than an individual giving up. “Teacher burnout is largely the inability to continue the job you live in the way that you love,” she said.

The Lakeville School Board did not respond to a request for comment on the status of contract negotiations and the difficulties Lakeville teachers are facing.

Taber Akin is the principal at Eastview Elementary School in Lakeville. He says teacher burnout stems from pay dissatisfaction, exhaustion, and cumulative stress over time.

“You expect things to get better but they’re not so that becomes frustrating and tiresome and that might feed the exhaustion as well,” he said. He also said some of the problems educators are facing come from the state legislature. Akin says legislators should let teachers do their jobs without additional mandates and direction from the state.

State Senator Says Government Should Stop Putting More Work On Teachers’ Plates

Sen. Zach Duckworth (R-Lakeville) sits on the Education Policy Committee in the Minnesota Senate. He also says the legislature places too many mandates on teachers.

“I think we’re moving in the wrong direction in terms of continuing to add mandates to schools and things to teacher’s plates,” Duckworth said. He said teachers tell him that issues with pay, retirement, and an increase in disciplinary issues are making their jobs more stressful.

“Every single thing you add takes away from the primary purpose of that teacher which is to be teaching kids and focusing on academics in the classroom. They can only do so much and the more you throw on top of them, something’s going to give,” he said.

Administrators, Legislators, and Communities Can Work Together

Susi Little is the sole German teacher at Rosemount High School in Minnesota and is responsible for four different levels of instruction. She says she no longer feels the pride in being a teacher that she once did and that her profession is now stigmatized.

“People tend to think we’re just sitting around twiddling our thumbs and get summers off and we don’t work hard,” she said. “They have no idea what we’re up against.”

Teachers put in long hours because they love their students and want to see them succeed. They are burning out faster than any other sector and they’re speaking out as to why.

Teachers and administrators say unfunded mandates from state legislatures put stress on already thin district budgets leading to extended contract negotiations. Teachers want to be paid more and school boards say they can’tafford it. Teachers say district administrators should be more transparent about district finances and try to find more efficient ways to use limited financial resources.