New England has what are considered some of the most and least attractive working conditions for teachers.
New Hampshire was ranked the worst state in which to teach last year by the business and personal finance website WalletHub. A recent report by the firm Zippia Career rated Connecticut the best state for teachers this year and ranked Massachusetts the fourth best.
Still, those states can’t find enough teachers or support staff.
“The stress is really the number one reason that we have. The teachers are reporting leaving the field prior to retirement and the rates of stress are increasing across all teachers and increasing at faster rates for elementary school teachers,” Lisa Sanetti, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut, told And Another Thing.
A shortage of substitute teachers also concerns educators in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
“We get larger class sizes because teachers are taking kids from other classes where there are no substitutes available,” Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents executive director Fran Rabinowitz told And Another Thing.
“There is a substitute shortage. And what that's doing is it's impacting everybody in all kinds of ways, from not being able to take a sick day to having to work around schedules if they're getting boosters and they're getting sick,” Massachusetts Teachers Association president Merrie Najimy told And Another Thing.
This episode of And Another Thing was originally broadcast on December 7, 2021.
Guests:
- Fran Rabinowitz, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents
- Merrie Najimy, Massachusetts Teachers Association president
- Lisa Sanetti, professor and researcher at UConn's Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace