OHIO — Many teachers who are passionate about their profession aren’t sticking around for another school year. 

What You Need To Know

  • According to American Federation of Teachers, nearly 300,000 teachers left the profession every year before the COVID-19 pandemic

  • Between 2007 to 2015, Ohio saw 6,000 to nearly 8,400 retirements each year

  • Ohio’s seen an uptick in teachers retiring over the last few years despite a downward trend for about a decade 

  • There’s been a decline in high school students majoring in education and some universities have closed down portions of education programs

Karen Shires is one of those teachers who retired after teaching kids with special needs for 36 years in 2021. Shires loved teaching, but “in my last year of teaching, it was COVID time, and it was hard. I was doing so much with technology because I was teaching in person on the smart board. Kids were logging in daily to watch me teach because they were staying at home. I could do it all. It just took time, and it was a little harder for me to learn everything and it just got to be exhausting,” she explained.

Plus, soon after, doctors diagnosed Shires with Lupus. Being retired would give her time she didn’t have previously to take care of herself.

Although retirement pushed her to revisit questions of who she was beyond teaching, it opened the door for her to spend time with her children and grandchild, work with retired teachers and advocate for kids in human trafficking.

“If I can help anybody find their kids, that would be amazing,” she said. Looking back on her teaching career, “as much as I loved it, it was hectic. It was a lot, and my time was done and I think I’m OK with that."

The American Federation of Teachers stated in a report they are leaving by the thousands each year. Whether it’s unrealistic expectations, burnout or political clashes, education experts said many teachers have had enough.

According to a Rand survey, 74% nationally planned to stick with teaching in 2020 and not retire early. That same survey done in March of 2021 showed those numbers went down 5%.

“More striking than that is the 40% of teachers at or around retirement, which is about 55 that in a survey last year, said they were thinking about opting out and not returning back to teaching,” explained Kevin Jones, dean of education at Cedarville University.

In Ohio, the numbers showed a downward trend of retirements, according to the data from Ohio's State Teacher Retirement System for years. Yet, the state saw an uptick in 2019 of 3,056 retirements. In 2021, there were 3,697 retirements. This year, Ohio sits at just over 2,906.

Jones believes the ongoing impact of those leaving is immeasurable right now, even as there’s been a decline in high school students majoring in education and schools like Cedarville University have closed portions of their education program.