"More Teachers Are Getting Laid Off, Class Sizes of More Than 40..." Teachers Say They Are Quitting

Ajouté : 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]I've been teaching at my current school for about 9 years and the teacher morale at our school is the lowest it's been since I've been there. It's hanging on by a thread. Last year the district laid off a ton of teachers and it made our classrooms humongous. I went from having an average of about 29 30 students to having about 35 to 36 students per class. Right now I have a total of 196 students and it's because of the teacher layoffs. The district is planning on laying off a hundred more teachers that they don't need to lay off this year. I teach in secondary and it doesn't matter from what subject a teacher gets laid off from. There's always this domino effect that makes every single other class larger. Can't imagine how my class sizes are going to balloon because of this set of layoffs. I only have 40 seats in my classroom and I can make more. I've done it in the past. It's not just teacher layoffs. It's support staff layoffs like office managers and and folks who make our lives a lot easier and a lot happier on a daily basis. I've always been a teacher that is less worried about myself than I am about my students. But here's the thing. If teacher morale is low, then student morale is going to be low. If the teachers have a hard time teaching classes of upwards of 30 or 40 students, then the students are going to suffer.

[00:01:17]The morale of teachers, staff, and students are at the lowest it's ever been. and it looks like we haven't reached the bottom yet. I'm going to continue to be there every single day and I'm going to continue to show up and I'm going to continue to give my best to my students. I just feel like my best could be even better if we had smaller class sizes. I feel like my best could be even better if we had support staff that were there to support us. I feel like my best could be even better if I didn't see colleagues kind of cycled through the hiring and laying off process.

[00:01:48]They're going to continue to see morale lessen because it's going to get worse and you're going to start seeing classes that are collegeized. I think that we're about to see one of the biggest transitions in history when it comes to teachers, when it comes to students, when it comes to the school districts.

[00:02:08]And I remember when we were younger, if you wanted to go to a better school district, either you had to test out, basically you had to be the best of the best and then you can go into um a better school within your district, but that's ranked much higher and they separated it based off of grades. Or you had to go to a completely different district and then change your address to your cousin's address or or you know, your uncle's address or whatever like that in order to be able to get into those schools and then even then you could get cracked down on. Nowadays, most of the districts are laying off teachers because they've mismanaged the budget for so long. And now you're having to pay the piper, right? You're having to um address the issues financially that has been going on inside of these school districts for a long time and you now have to pay that.

[00:02:58]And what's happening is a lot of these districts have been bloated. They have been borrowing money for a long time.

[00:03:05]There's been a lot of mismanagement. You have a lot of layers at the top, superintendent, uh, all of these different people that are basically stealing from the school district, money disappears, uh, the states continue to lie people and say that the lottery is going to support these schools and they're not. And now what you're starting to see is also a cash crunch from financial obligations to take care of people in their retirement, uh, pensions, all of that type of stuff. And so now what's happening is not only was the school districts already bad as far as um the children suffering from the mismanagement of their parents.

[00:03:44]Basically the parents is not doing what they supposed to do to make sure the children are supported and that the children are behaving in school so that the teachers can actually teach them and they can learn. Not only are you dealing with that, but you're also dealing with the morale of the teachers because they don't make a lot of money. There is a cash crunch. They're laying off all over the place. And I'm not sure exactly where he is, but I just covered the Cleveland uh Metropolitan School District and how they laid over 400 teachers off on them. And so the class sizes are are going to continue to balloon. They already stressed out. They already having problems. They not getting no pay raises. And they also have to worry about security inside of the schools. And so morale is horrible inside of these schools. I'm not sure exactly what school district he in, but I think that we were the last generation uh cuz I'm a geriatric millennial. Um we are the last generation to be able to have a reasonable expectation unless you can send your kids to private school and or you have a a person that is from home that works from home or a person that is a stay-at-home mother that can homeschool your children, you in trouble.

[00:04:48]>> Oh, we need to stop pretending this is normal. CNN just reported that 71% of public school teachers have a second job. Let that sit for a second. And teaching isn't a job that ends at dismissal. After school hours, we're planning, grading, creating lessons, answering emails, returning phone calls, attending meetings, all unpaid. And yet, a majority of teachers are still needing to clock in to another job at night. And I was one of them. For the last 5 years of my career, I had two part-time jobs.

[00:05:19]And it wasn't because I was irresponsible and it wasn't because I wasn't good with money. It's because I needed to pay my rent. Part of the financial strain for me came around year 24 of my career. That's when our district said that we needed to contribute more to our health insurance.

[00:05:33]And that was $9,000.

[00:05:36]I took home almost $1,000 less a month from that point on. And teachers already make about 27% less than other professionals with the same level of education. These are the teachers you trust with your children every day. You trust them with your child's education, planning their future, their mental, emotional, and physical health. And you trust these teachers with your child's safety, whether it's a routine situation in a school or one of the most horrific that we can imagine. But here's the real cost that nobody can put a number on. In 2025, the Center for American Progress published a report that seven out of 10 teachers knew in the career under five years were either seriously considering leaving the profession or going to leave the profession. That followed up with a University of Pennsylvania study that used federal data to find that 44% of teachers actually did leave the profession within the first 5 years. I really hit my stride in year five, six, and seven and only got better from there because of the experience I had. If we keep cycling teachers through who only have one or two years of experience, our students are missing out on so much. And it is >> you ain't even got to worry about it because it's just going to continue to get bad anyway. Nobody is going to keep dealing with bad kids. Nobody is going to keep dealing with low pay. Um, back in the days a lot of times teaching was considered a career, but a lot of the teachers um basically had to make sacrifices. And I remember when I was coming up in the late 80s, early 90s that cuz I was born in the early 80s that um a lot of the teachers were married and a lot of the um them was following their kids through school. So, they got a teaching job because their husband was already working um and they were stay at home moms and they wind up getting a teaching job so that they can actually be there for their kids growing up. Or you just had them um you know doing it as a something that they was dedicated to but they didn't have to depend on it in order to survive or live. And so it was a different different type of conversation. Uh the teachers were more caring, the teachers were more attentive. Um and they became an extension of the parents. And if we did anything bad at school, then the teachers would tell your parents or the teachers would deal with you and then your parents dealt with you at home also. But it's a completely different game now.

[00:07:59]>> Moralizing to hear people say that teaching is basically babysitting. It's an easy job. Your days aren't that long.

[00:08:06]You have summers off. To those kind of statements, I follow up with this question. If it is just babysitting, why does it require a college degree, state certification, continuing education, and hours of unpaid work? I never did that when I was babysitting. If it's so easy, apply. If it's such a cushy job, apply.

[00:08:27]If it's so overpaid, apply. Go get your certification. Do alternate route. Get into this cushy, easy, no work job as soon as possible. encourage your kids to go into teaching as well. You'll get a job. We're hiring because there is a national teacher shortage for a cushy, easy, overpaid job. Huh?

[00:08:53]Almost doesn't make sense. One of the things that I often get told when I say teachers don't make enough, like teachers deserve higher pay, teachers need to get paid more. One of the things I'm always met with is, "Well, you have a good retirement plan." Do I? I don't even know because baby I'm not even making it to retirement. You think I don't even know if I have another five years in me? Teaching has changed so drastically that I I don't know I don't know how anyone can teach for longer than maybe 10 15 years. I don't know how anyone my age within the like that is in the teaching conditions how it is now that in the education system now that is going to be able to teach until 55. And the only way that I think someone is able to do that is if they just stop caring, right? And they because there is no way that I can do what I do now for another how old am I?

[00:09:45]30 years.

[00:09:47]>> I could never see myself dealing with the type of stuff that teachers are dealing with today. Parents is cussing out the teachers. Then you got these mobile devices. AI is now taking a bigger place in it. Um, no way. Unless I was a private school teacher to which you got a lot more control and parents care a lot more, then that's something that I would consider. And I'm pretty sure that a lot of teachers, if they aren't going into the profession, will probably consider that more. And it's probably a lot more competitive because a lot those type of teachers, they don't leave. They're a lot more caring. Um, you go back to the schools and say, "Hey, thank you for teaching me." And all of that type of stuff. But not today.

[00:10:28]>> I would go crazy.

[00:10:30]I would be hospitaliz like it's just it's not possible. It's not possible. So yeah, maybe the retirement is great, but I'm not going to get it because there's no way. I after my first and second year of teaching, I quickly realized this is not a job I can do forever. I can't like it will be the death of me. Quite literally, I cannot do it. So, I'm going to give it all I got until I can't give it anymore. When I can't give it anymore, I'm out because that's what's best for me and that's what's best for the students.

[00:10:55]>> Yeah, I feel her. Let me know what y'all think outside of the comments. Make sure y'all tap into the Patreon link is in the description. Tenley 40% off your first order, 20% off a life. I love you.

[00:11:04]I appreciate you. Mahal at you guys later. Pray for your your local teachers.