{"id":10192,"date":"2024-04-14T20:33:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-14T20:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=10192"},"modified":"2024-04-15T13:05:33","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T13:05:33","slug":"dpi-report-on-teacher-shortage-misses-the-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=10192","title":{"rendered":"DPI Report on Teacher Shortage Misses the Mark"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/will-law.org\/dpi-report-on-teacher-shortage-misses-the-mark\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Recently, Wisconsin\u2019s Department of Public Instruction <\/span>released a report<\/span><\/a> on the teacher shortage in the state.\u00a0 The report claims that nearly 40% of teachers leave the profession within the first five years, and blames declines in teacher compensation over the past decade for the shift.\u00a0 While the problems identified in the report are legitimate, the causes and solutions offered are more representative of traditional liberal talking points than an honest effort to make improvements for the teaching workforce in the state.\u00a0 In this explainer, we identify a number of issues with DPI\u2019s report.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Consistent with National Patterns<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Despite attempts to blame Act 10 for the decline in teacher retention, in reality this is a problem around the county. Indeed, based on the numbers reported by DPI, Wisconsin may actually be <\/span>better <\/span><\/i>than average. A 2018 study estimated that 44% of teachers<\/a> nationwide leave the profession within five years\u00a0 And this data was pre-COVID\u2013there is extensive evidence that turnover has increased since then.\u00a0 To illustrate this, consider a recent <\/span>Chalkbeat<\/span><\/a> analysis looked at teachers leaving the profession across four states.\u00a0 Each of these states saw an annual turnover rate of more than 10% during the 2022 school year.\u00a0\u00a0 A figure from that report is reproduced below.\u00a0<\/span>
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Figure 1. Annual Teacher Turnover in Four States (Chalkbeat)<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>
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Even using the lower number observed in each state in 2021 and adding them up over five years, each of these states would see over 50% turnover in that time frame. Even more surprising, this analysis is not limited to the younger teachers that are the focus in Wisconsin. It is important to note that, at least in some of these states, teachers may have left for another school system.\u00a0 Nonetheless, a profession experiencing over 10 percent turnover annually has a huge problem\u2014and it does mean that it\u2019s not specific to issues in Wisconsin. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of the Compensation Decline is in Fringe Benefits<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

While there were modest declines in salary for teachers in the aftermath of Act 10, the largest decrease in total compensation comes from changes in fringe benefits.\u00a0 This is entirely sensible\u2014as Act 10 mandated that teachers (and other public employees) make contributions to their healthcare and retirement accounts much like those of us in the private sector.\u00a0 A<\/span> 2016 study<\/span><\/a> from WILL examined the impact of Act 10 on salary and benefits.\u00a0 Controlling for other factors, we found that Act 10 reduced pay by about $141 annually, but benefits by about $634.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While ordinarily I wouldn\u2019t cite an 8-year old study, this was actually the proper time frame for a look back in this instance\u2014far too many years and other factors have intervened at this point to still blame Act 10 for changes. But the bottom line is that it is reasonable to expect teachers to contribute to their retirement, and going back the other way would be simply untenable for districts.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Repeats False Claims about Not Funding Public Schools<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

In a press release about the report, Superintendent Underly stated, \u201c<\/span>Solving this challenge starts with upholding the state\u2019s responsibility of funding our public schools. We have the resources, and we owe it to our kids to do more<\/span><\/i>.\u201d As has often been the case lately with arguments for more school funding, the choice of the year 2010 as the baseline for arguing for more school funding is strategic, as this was a high watermark for school funding in the state.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Figure below shows \u201call-in\u201d student funding across Wisconsin from 2004 to 2022 including state, local, and federal money.\u00a0 The highest spending prior to this year was 2010\u2014when an inflation-adjusted $16,637 was spent on average per student.\u00a0 There was decline after that year, but that came along with significant savings to the district from Act 10 that make it reasonable ot expect districts to do with less money.\u00a0 But perhaps more importantly, by 2022, Wisconsin has actually surpassed the high watermark of 2010 spending.\u00a0 Underly\u2019s statement is false, and teachers should ask where all this money is going rather than into their bank accounts. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Figure 2.\u00a0 Revenue Per Student Over Time, Wisconsin<\/strong><\/h5>\n

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Ignoring the Role of School Discipline<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

When teachers don\u2019t feel supported in the classroom, their job becomes immensely more difficult.\u00a0 Recent years have seen a move away from traditional discipline in the classroom to so-called \u201cRestorative Justice\u201d in education that lead to students avoiding punishment for misbehavior. <\/span>WILL research<\/span><\/a> has shown that this \u201csoft discipline\u201d is a negative for other students in the school, producing disruptive environments where learning cannot occur.\u00a0 This is doubly negative for teachers, tasked with creating an environment conducive to learning while feeling unsupported\u2014or even endangered\u2014by administrators who refuse to act on disciplining disruptive children.\u00a0 A <\/span>recent survey<\/span><\/a> by the NEA found that nearly half of teachers have considered resigning over school safety and climate.\u00a0 Addressing safety issues may not be woke, but is key to retaining educators.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Conclusions<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

None of this is to dismiss concerns about teacher retention in Wisconsin. <\/span>WILL<\/span><\/a> and other groups in the state have supported reforms like alternative licensure options that would help to increase the number of people entering the field.\u00a0 But we must move beyond traditional talking points that blame a lack of education spending for the workforce crisis.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The post DPI Report on Teacher Shortage Misses the Mark<\/a> appeared first on Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/will-law.org\/dpi-report-on-teacher-shortage-misses-the-mark\/ Recently, Wisconsin\u2019s Department of Public Instruction released a report…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":10194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10192"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10197,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10192\/revisions\/10197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}