COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina has been dealing with a teacher shortage in recent years and the pandemic could be making things worse.
State education leaders say many teachers are resigning due to health concerns or being overworked.
“Over the last few years, South Carolina has been experiencing an ever-growing teacher shortage crisis," explained Patrick Kelly with the Palmetto State Teachers’ Association. "According to data from the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement, over the last five years our schools have averaged losing over 6,000 teachers per year.”
Kelly says the pandemic may increase those numbers. He says PSTA is constantly getting calls from South Carolina educators that want to resign or already have this year.
“[It’s] mainly for two reasons. Number one, they’re overwhelmed by what they’re trying to do in the midst of a pandemic and number two, because of medical concerns that they have either for themselves or their families,” Kelly said.
Spokesperson for the State Department of Education, Ryan Brown, told News19 that, “our state and nation were already in a teacher recruitment and retention crisis, and the pandemic has undoubtedly exacerbated that...”
For example, in Kershaw County, seven teachers have resigned or retired since March due to COVID-19 concerns. Orangeburg County Schools had two teachers resign for the same reason, as did Lexington School District Two.
However, some districts said they're not aware of any teachers leaving due to COVID-19 concerns. Richland School District Two says they had 22 classroom vacancies in November 2019, but now they've gone down to 14 vacancies.
News19 is waiting to hear back from other school districts in the Midlands to get their status on teachers.
Board member of SC for Ed Lisa Ellis agreed with Kelly and said morale is low among teachers right now. "First, we are concerned about our health and safety, and so that makes for an uncomfortable situation," said Ellis. "Second, most of us are having to teach in person and virtual students at the same time. This is extremely difficult to do, and we feel we are not meeting the needs of any of our students with this expectation."
In order to help the Palmetto State's teacher shortage crisis, Kelly said that, "it's critically important when our General Assembly returns in January for this to be a top priority." He added that he thinks ultimately it's the students that suffer most from the shortage.