With teacher burnout increasing in the face of low salaries, problematic behavior from students, sick schools, and more, Hamden educators told legislators during a recent meeting that the state needs to invest more to support educators and schools and prevent a full-blown teacher shortage crisis.
“Teacher burnout is one of the big things we’re dealing with right now—we continue to have teachers leave the profession,” a Hamden Education Association leader told Senators Martin Looney and Jorge Cabrera during a back-home meeting held over Zoom last week. “We’re just not recruiting like we used to. I have two children and I told them both, ‘You’re not to become a teacher.'”
[Pictured above, Hamden teachers Shelby Irwin and Katie Kiely and Fairfield teacher and Hamden resident Mick McGarry talk to Senate President Martin Looney (second from right) during CEA’s legislative breakfast in February.]
Low salaries, high stress, and students with extreme needs
A teacher shared that there are currently many barriers toward attracting and retaining a diverse teacher workforce. “You need two or three degrees to be able to do this job,” she said. “My salary just changed because I got credit for my six-year degree, but before that, with three degrees and after 13 years in the classroom I barely broke $60,000. And last year I spent $2,000 of my own money on essentials for my classroom.”
“I have four children, and I would not tell them to go into teaching. In this economic climate you can’t afford to be a teacher,” another educator said. “Many teachers have not just one job, they have part time jobs during the school year and work summer school.”
She explained that the expectations on teachers are sky high, yet they’re not compensated accordingly. Her son’s bonus as a private-sector worker is more than she makes in a year.
“We are held to the highest standard—we do more and more with less and less until we’re doing everything with nothing.”
Another teacher shared that she has plans to leave teaching, in her case not primarily because of the salary, but because of the extreme burdens being placed on the profession.
“I knew going into this job I wasn’t going to be rich. It’s not about the money for me,” she said. She explained that teachers are being expected to do everything, including serve as untrained therapists for their students, and that meeting students’ social-emotional and behavioral needs is crowding out time for academic instruction.
“We have faced so many challenging and very sad circumstances these last two years—it puts a lot of stress on our staff and teachers,” another educator said. “We really need mental health supports for our educators. This job can be so unbelievably stressful.”
“Social-emotional learning is so important, and I feel like every day is a fight between, ‘Do I teach the curriculum, or do I teach an SEL lesson that my kids really need?'” and elementary teacher said. “Play-based learning is so crucial. We’ve seen such a decline in kids’ SEL skills and ability to resolve conflicts. We’re seeing all these really big behaviors from really small kids. It’s because they can’t manage their emotions—but they’ve also never had to follow a schedule as rigid as ours is.”
Teachers said that while young elementary students throw chairs and disrupt classrooms to the point that teachers have to remove other children from the room, problematic student behavior doesn’t always stop as students get older.
A teacher shared that he had been out of work for 10 days per his doctor’s orders after getting hit in the head twice breaking up a fight. “There needs to be some kind of system that will allow us to get the help that we need. It does take a lot out of you working with these kids every day.”
Another Hamden local leader said that teachers are seeing a significant worsening of children’s behavior.
“I’ve been at the high school for the last 23 years,” he said. “There’s been an increase in violent behaviors at the high school level. An administrator got hurt the other day, another teacher got his nose broken and a concussion. It seems like we’re not able to keep a lid on this. When you have adult-sized students throwing punches—we’re not technically supposed to intervene—but when you see kids getting hurt, as a teacher, it’s hard not to intervene.”
Sick schools
Like many districts, Hamden has some newer school buildings that are in better condition, and several older schools that haven’t been properly maintained with poor ventilation and no air conditioning.
“I had a teacher email me today saying that her classroom was 85 degrees, with the windows and doors open—and they have a fan in their room,” an educators said. “It’s unbearable for a lot of people—both kids and staff. Having healthy indoor air and HVAC systems that are clean and adequately funded is really crucial.”
She shared that during days of extreme heat this April teachers had planned to prepare their classrooms for testing by covering up bulletin boards and other materials on the walls. “It was so hot in our classrooms that I thought I was going to pass out. Then you expect kids to test in that environment and do well.”
Another teacher shared that she recently moved from one Hamden school to another and saw an immediate change in her health.
“At the school I was at previously, from October to March I had been sick almost weekly. The building is in really rough shape, and I did attribute my illnesses to the building, which the district had discussed tearing down a few years ago. For the first two months of the year water was pouring into the building—the majority of which is carpeted. I was in an office with a carpet where the toilet had overflowed, so I moved to an office that had a smashed window that I had to put tape over to help with the sound.”
She continued, “Since I moved to a newer building, which is very clean, I have not had to call out sick for any reason. It’s like night and day, and it proved to me that it was the old building that was making me sick. I know one of our employees developed asthma for the first time in her life after working there. It’s so sad to think there are little kids sitting in classrooms in these buildings that are disgusting.”
Senators respond
“Thank you for sharing your compelling stories about what you do every day,” said Senate President Looney. He said that Democrats in the Senate want a comprehensive response to issues educators are facing but are up against a spending cap on which Governor Lamont has not been willing to budge. “Many of us have the view that the spending cap should be more adjustable and flexible.”
The state’s spending cap is a form of fiscal guard rails that limit the year-to-year growth in general budget expenditures. It is not the state’s only fiscal safety net, however, and it’s provisions do not account for increasing costs and changing needs. Meanwhile, the state’s economy has produced a budget surplus of billions of dollars in recent years. That large surplus has caused many lawmakers to question the logic of setting aside additional dollars for tomorrow when the state has significant needs today.
Looney said that legislators are committed to fully funding the excess cost for special education, which has become a big burden for cities and towns. “A town has to spend 4.5 times its per pupil expenditure on special education to qualify but the state had only been reimbursing at 60 percent. We’re committed to reimbursing 100 percent this year. That’s a cost that’s really impossible for towns to budget for.”
Looney continued, “The high taxes that people in Connecticut complain about are really the property taxes. I’ve been advocating for years for a more progressive tax structure. Those earning the highest levels of income only pay 6.99%. We need to push for greater tax equity.”
“Thank you for sharing your stories, struggles, and frustrations,” said Senator Cabrera. “This is an important part of the conversation that must continue. I’m hopeful we get more traction around progressive taxation to fund our schools.”
He recommended that teachers reach out with emails and phone calls to the governor’s office to let him know how desperately funding is needed to better support teachers and schools. “We’ve got your back,” Cabrera added.
