Los Angeles: almost 70% of teachers want to quit their jobs

Most cite the rising cost of living and overwork as the main reasons. The city has a shortage of more than 15,000 professionals.

Published by

Verónica Silveri Pazos

3 de septiembre, 2022

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A new report from United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) revealed that nearly 70% of Los Angeles teachers have considered quitting their jobs due to the rising cost of living and being overworked.

28% of educators needed a second job to make ends meet due to low salaries. Nearly 60% of teachers with 20 or more years of experience reported not being able to afford to live in the communities where they teach.

Educator Shortage Summary by VozMedia on Scribd

Teacher exodus and insufficient salaries

Los Angeles public education employment faces a large shortage of about 15,800 workers compared to February 2020. The number of teachers resigning in the 2020-2021 school phase grew by 38% compared to the previous 2019-2020 period, and retirements increased by 12%.

Rising rental costs make L.A. the most expensive city to rent in with an average price of $4,664 per month for a single-family home. In addition, between 2018 and 2021, basic staples in the city increased in price by more than 20%. These reasons, among others, meant that teachers like Gina Gray, an English teacher at a Los Angeles high school, had to get a second job at Instacart to make ends meet, she told The Guardian :

Remuneration is much lower than expected...In Los Angeles County, especially in Los Angeles, the costs are enormous. Most teachers can't even afford rent, let alone buy a property on their teaching salary alone.

UTLA president Cecily Myart-Cruz said that teachers are going through a crisis and that salaries are neither fair nor sufficient to get by:

We're in a critical crisis right now where you have educators bearing the brunt in this profession of not being treated as professionals.... Wages are simply not livable.

National trend

An Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report released this month revealed that the nationwide salary gap between teachers and other professionals with similar educational experience reached a new high, reaching 23.5% in 2021.

The exodus of educators reaches new highs. A survey from the National Education Association revealed that there were about 300,000 fewer workers in public education in June 2022 than in February 2020. Around 55% of educators are considering leaving the profession earlier than they had originally planned.

The Biden Administration’s Role

Public education funding "needs an overhaul", EPI said, especially in school districts with medium to high poverty rates. The distribution of funds depends largely on local and state officials, which creates inequalities between cities and states.

The Biden Administration allocates 11.6% of public funding to education, below the Unesco benchmark of 15%. A study conducted in 2020 by the Century Foundation revealed that the country lacks $150 billion in annual funding for public schools, and that districts with a high concentration of black and Latino students face an average funding shortfall of $5,000 per pupil.