LEONARDTOWN, Md. — With only a few weeks of Summer remaining, schools all across the state are preparing for students to return from vacation. But some school administrators are concerned that they might not have enough teachers to function properly.
The state of Maryland has lost a large number of teachers over the past two or three years, and that number is still growing.
5,516 teachers statewide have chosen to quit their jobs during this year alone. Over 40% of them voluntarily resigned, 25% left to seek out other forms of employment, and another 20% chose to retire.
Many of the teachers who quit were also relatively new, having only around five years of experience or less.
Of course, Southern Maryland was not spared from this teacher exodus.
Charles County lost around 15% of its teachers, the third most of any county in Maryland. In addition, Calvert County lost roughly 9%, and St. Mary’s County lost approximately 10%.
TheBayNet.com contacted St. Mary’s County Public School’s Superintendent, James Scott Smith, for a comment on the situation.
“St. Mary’s County Public Schools (SMCPS) feels the effects of this shortage as well,” Smith said, “As of August 1, 2022, SMCPS has hired 110 new certificated staff members. We have 48 certificated vacancies remaining.”
“SMCPS has been proactive in addressing this shortage. During the previous two school years, we have actively recruited at various in-person or online teacher recruitment events. We also hosted two virtual recruitment events, one for all teachers and another specifically for Special Education teachers. SMCPS offers excellent benefits including health insurance, paid leave, and tuition reimbursement. We also provide in-depth training and mentor support for our new teachers during the first three years of employment with SMCPS.”
The Maryland Board of Education has been trying several different remedies in hopes of solving the problem. One new tactic includes raising the salaries of teaching jobs to entice interested parties.
Maryland’s State Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury spoke to CBS and ABC News about the teacher shortages.
“There is no quick fix to this. There are things we can do in the long term and things we can do in the short term… It’s everything related to pay, professional autonomy, and culture of the school. Culture of the school may have those things [discipline] tied into it, but it’s also other things as well…”
For more details about the teacher shortage across Maryland, click below: https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/stateboard/Documents/2022/0726/TabGBlueprintAndDataDeepDiveTeacherPipelineAndDiversity.pdf
Contact our news desk at news@thebaynet.com.
This is an annual story and currently is a national problem. Between retirees and the schools now being a dumping ground for parents who have abdicated their responsibilities, this story will not change any time soon.
I agree. I’d home school my kids if there were any left at home. I can’t imagine teaching in the current environment.
oh thank goodness for private schools. that is all I am going to say! people need to stop having more children than they can afford and parent. that is the number one issue we have shortages. people are having children for kicks and not raising them properly.
Low pay along with Maryland’s high cost of living will most certainly do that
You might have a point if this was ONLY a problem in MD or other high cost of living areas in the country. But it’s not.
Maryland is the 7th most expensive state to live in with only a median income of $65000 a year, I most certainly have a point, do some research before opening your trap
Do some reading b4 you open yours…again. One snarky response doesn’t need to be met with another. BDEF might have been agreeing, but also pointing out there are other reasons too!
You can also do some reading before opening yours, this article is about southern Maryland, not the rest of the country
Maybe you should follow your own advice and look up the salaries for teachers in MD and southern MD. You CLEARLY did not bother to do this. Charles county STARTING salaries are between $54k and $65k. Salaries for teachers in MD average around $75k. Once you’ve done that look up the median income in the state that is CHEAPEST to live in. See if you can figure out the correlation.
Did I or did I not say the median household income was $65000 a year, what is your point?
That low of a salary in Maryland you will struggle, now add your college debt along with high housing costs and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out
Let’s just lower the standards required to hire teachers. Ya know, the way the standards are lowered for students? Why would a teacher need any education or certifications when the system puts out idiots? And instead spreads wokeness, grooms, and promotes degenerate behaviors.
Okay gomer.
I would suggest making it easier for people with degrees to transition into teaching. A person who is qualified to teach in college should be qualified to teach in high school.
Why would you think a person who is qualified to be a college professor would not be qualified to teach in K-12?
Because they are not. Teaching in a public K-12 school requires Certification that college teachers do not need. It is very possible to hold a PhD in English and teach at the collegiate level, but not have the license to teach 9th grade English
I’d love to hear why you think an individual with a PhD in English could not acquire a state teaching certification to teach 9th grade English.
If they’d throw all the ones that belong in jail in jail we’d have more than enough teachers to cover the remaining students
DO NOT work for SMCPS. The Superintendent on down are crooked as the day is long!
“Anonymous says: August 5, 2022 at 11:25 am Did I or did I not say the median household income was $65000 a year, what is your point? That low of a salary in Maryland you will struggle, now add your college debt along with high housing costs and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out” My points are twofold: 1. You aren’t very bright. 2. You just proved this point by not understanding the difference between a starting salary of a profession and the median salary of all workers in a state. And I guess I have to throw in a #3. 3. Housing costs are a main component in the cost of living. You are now trying to double count them. This also reinforces point #1.
Again you have just confirmed that I am correct, what’s your point? Obviously you don’t have one, you are dismissed
Obviously you aren’t smart because you cannot come up with anything other then saying I’m not bright
Exactly what I thought, you have no point
You are dismissed
Once again, you can’t support your positions. And, once again, I see you are running around other threads like a spoiled little girl.
The information I have provided is all publicly available with easy access from google
I’m hardly a spoiled little girl, if anything you are speaking about yourself because you run and tell on everyone when you don’t get your way
And here we are again with you having no ability to understand the data and no ability to understand that you are the only one responsible for your continually getting banned. Thereby proving, once again that you aren’t very bright. No sense continuing
Again, all information is publicly available, go ahead and tell on me wimp
So now you are whining as usual
How about you call me a girl to my face? How’s that sound? Instead of rambling useless and off topic garbage behind your phone
So here you go mr know it all
https://www.averagesalarysurvey.com/maryland
Now what did you say teachers start at? I’ll wait, and also you obviously have zero clue how government wages work so I’ll also let you know they only receive a cost of living wage which is 3 percent, higher ups are 4-6 percent
Once again you have been debunked
Now you can leave the site
The correct place to obtain wage information is a state or federal department of labor. Not a site that quotes salaries in the Pound Sterling.
You still don’t understand the difference between avg salary and starting salary.
Govt workers (including teachers) get step increases and increases with advanced degree or specialization certificates in addition to COLAs. Teacher pay scales are posted on most BOE websites.
You should really stop trying to act like you possess any intellectual capacity.
Once again you refuse facts, where done here obviously you’re just trying to get attention, goodbye troll
I’ve reported you for being a bot, you’ll be removed soon
You think govt employees/teachers don’t get “step” raises? Really?
Wrong as usual, anything else before you get banned?
https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/economy/html/income.html
Here you go troll/bot
Good lord. You just posted HOUSEHOLD income. Every other comment is about median SALARY. Don’t you know the difference between HOUSEHOLDS and INDIVIDUALS?????
You really are a bot, I’ll give the site a call
Good teachers are worth the money. Raise the salaries offered to get more.
Yes the government wastes money, but you will not be wasting money on a good teacher.
Exactly
“Anonymous says: August 10, 2022 at 5:20 pm You really are a bot, I’ll give the site a call” When you do, please make sure you point out that you don’t understand the difference between average of all salaries vs a starting salary, please point out that you don’t know the difference between total household income and individual salaries, please point out that you think government workers don’t get step raises and ABOVE ALL please make sure to point out your desire to violently overthrow the US govt. I’ll open my window so I can hear them laughing at you.
Literally nobody cares what you think, haven’t you figured that out yet? Yes I’m all for the overthrow of the corrupt government, it’s not my problem you’re a wimp now is it? You on the other hand have total disrespect for the children of the Texas incident and said the American flag shouldn’t be lowered in their honor, now you can keep lying and say you didn’t say that but everyone knows the truth, there’s literally millions that stand with my opinion
There’s none that stand with your anti American opinion
Get lost!
You seem to have forgotten that the article is about the shortage of teachers.
So have you, what’s your point
I’ve simply been responding to your silly posts that follow your consistent pattern of posting from a basic lack of knowledge, a misuse of terminology and an overall inability to understand most anything.
You want to know how dumb you are? You rant and rave that I don’t know the difference in household income and individual income correct?
But yet you didn’t even look at the entire page I sent you, that’s how dumb and I mean dumb you are, now get out of here with your garbage, and that’s a order
That page shows not only household incomes but also personal incomes, you cannot read and you have zero and I mean zero business trying to argue with anyone on here, one day you will get what’s coming to you
Ok…so thanks for highlighting that. So you just highlighted something else you don’t understand. Personal INCOME is different from SALARY. However, if you want to compare, the STARTING salaries of teachers in Charles, as I have already stated, is between $54 and $65k and the average salary of teachers in MD is $74k. So teachers in MD actually do fairly well based on avg salary even when compared to average personal income. And, based on data from the St Louis Federal Reserve, Maryland is among the top 10 states for average personal income.
Troll
And again as I’ve pointed out I don’t know how many times they make average income, which means they cannot afford housing, and again Maryland is the 7th most expensive state to live in.
What is your point????
Only the same basic point I made 11 days ago: “You might have a point if this was ONLY a problem in MD or other high cost of living areas in the country. But it’s not.”
And just your overall inability to understand basic terminology, like “average” or “median” “or cost of living” or the difference between individuals and households or the difference between income and salary or how govt workers get raises…
I work for the government I’m well aware of their raises. Go away
Then why did you say: “you obviously have zero clue how government wages work so I’ll also let you know they only receive a cost of living wage which is 3 percent, higher ups are 4-6 percent”?
That’s a facts
Try again. This time in English, please.