There was no single reason why Ryan Higgins decided to leave teaching.

It was a job he loved: invigorating, unpredictable, a chance to make the world a bit better. But several years into his career, Higgins, who taught high school social studies in the Fort Worth, Texas area, was increasingly frustrated.

For one, his salary 鈥� decent when he was fresh out of college in 2016 鈥� felt stagnant and mediocre. He coached basketball and football, so his days often stretched from early morning to late evening. And 鈥渢eacher appreciation week鈥� began to feel borderline demeaning: You can wear jeans all week! There鈥檚 free pizza in the teachers鈥� lounge!

Then there was the time a parent complained after he chewed out and benched a member of the basketball team who was slacking off. The school鈥檚 assistant principal didn鈥檛 back Higgins up. Yes, maybe he had been a bit too tough, but he was also giving up his Saturdays, doing students鈥� laundry, and even driving the bus.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e running around like crazy trying to solve problems, and yet people who aren鈥檛 with you are always telling you what you need to do better,鈥� Higgins says.

What finally pushed him out was the aftermath of the pandemic. Trying to effectively teach students over Zoom was all but impossible. Then when students returned to classrooms, they were breathtakingly behind academically and socially. Behavior was out of control. Parents, it seemed, were less trusting of teachers, too. 鈥淚t felt like the walls were closing in,鈥� he says.

Higgins left teaching in the summer of 2022. A member of the Army Reserve, he soon took an assignment overseas. Today, he鈥檚 going into his third year of law school. He sees himself as part of a 鈥渓ost generation鈥� of teachers.

The year Higgins left, more teachers departed public school classrooms in Texas than at any point since at least 2007, the earliest year with state data. This was not just a blip: From 2020 to 2025, the state lost 35,000 teachers who would have stayed in the classroom if the state had maintained its pre-pandemic turnover figures. That鈥檚 equivalent to nearly 10% of the current teacher workforce.

The pattern in Texas has repeated to varying degrees in states across the country, according to an extensive Chalkbeat analysis of data since 2019 spanning 21 states. Most of those states have experienced four to five straight years of elevated teacher turnover, compounding the losses year after year. High-poverty schools in particular were already having a hard time keeping teachers.

Even though turnover finally appears to be trending down, the consequences persist. Research has to . At a moment when policymakers are seeking to , the loss of teachers and instability in schools deserves to be on the list of plausible contributors.

[See our聽聽including detailed data from each state. You can also聽聽about teacher turnover.]

A teacher turnover dip, then a sustained rise

There is no comprehensive national data on teacher exit rates. To fill this gap, I conducted an extensive state-by-state review, using a variety of sources.

Across most states, a pattern emerged: Compared with 2019, fewer teachers left in the summer of 2020 when the economy was at a standstill due to the pandemic. But then . Rates peaked in 2022 but typically remained elevated for the next couple years.

Only a couple of states in this analysis, Connecticut and Maryland, avoided any meaningful rise in turnover.

A spokesperson for the Texas Education Agency said the state has 鈥渆xperienced many of the workforce challenges seen nationwide, which is why teacher recruitment and retention remain a priority.鈥� Texas, for instance, has expanded a merit pay program, which , according to a recent study.

High-poverty schools, which struggled with teacher churn before the pandemic, likely suffered the most from the turnover spike. In South Carolina, for instance, exit rates rose especially sharply at those schools. A number of states have reported increases in , , and educators. Those teachers are typically concentrated in high-poverty schools.

It hasn鈥檛 just been teachers departing. In , , , , and principal attrition rose too. Turnover often has a cascading effect in schools. When a principal leaves, an assistant principal may take over, a teacher may become an assistant principal 鈥� and another classroom vacancy opens up.

Justin Wax became principal of a junior high school in southeast Louisiana in 2021. He was the third leader in three years. That made keeping staff harder since many were looking for stability at that moment. Most of the teachers who were at the school when he started are now gone. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e scraping the cream off of the top of all of the most veteran people,鈥� Wax says. 鈥淭here ends up being a vacuum.鈥�

Turnover appears to be finally coming . In the 12 states with figures through last summer, rates were below post-pandemic highs, although some places have not fully returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Wax says he鈥檚 had his best year of retention recently and is well staffed going into this coming school year. He鈥檚 prioritized making his school a supportive community where teachers are given professional autonomy and backed up on student discipline issues. Today, surveys show that from pandemic-era spikes. Most teachers are at least somewhat with their jobs.

More comprehensive recent data on turnover is not available because many states report figures with a significant lag. Other states numbers at all. And no state appears to have data yet for the share of teachers who have left this summer.

Teachers face worse behavior, stagnant pay, fewer perks

What drove the sharp increase in teacher exits?

Meghann Seril has been teaching elementary school in Los Angeles for 18 years. These days, she finds students鈥� behavior more challenging and their attention spans more limited. She鈥檚 seen many colleagues who struggled with classroom management leave in recent years.

鈥淚t has such a ripple effect because the administrator is focused on supporting those new teachers,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e working on putting out little fires all of the time.鈥� In surveys, teachers that student behavior is their , and many reported that behavioral issues after school buildings reopened.

Meanwhile, many other professionals have received a new perk since the pandemic: the ability to work from home. 鈥淏eing a teacher is arguably the least flexible job around,鈥� says Alex Baron, principal of a charter middle school in Washington, D.C. He suspects that鈥檚 made it difficult to recruit and retain teachers in his school.

At the same time, teacher salaries, never particularly high, have in real dollars, as inflation soared and school officials used new funds to rather than give teachers a raise. The salary gap between teachers and other college-educated professionals in recent years.

Tyra Damm鈥檚 decision to leave teaching came down to money. Some of her colleagues with higher-earning spouses saw teaching as a nice-to-have second income. One called it 鈥渇un money.鈥� Damm, who lives in the Dallas suburbs, did not have that luxury. She took up teaching in 2013, soon after her husband died of brain cancer. She figured it would provide a stable income with a parent-friendly schedule as she raised two young children.

She loved the job. Damm most recently taught middle school reading and writing to gifted and talented students and was named secondary teacher of the year in her district in 2019. But with only anemic raises and the price of everything rising, 鈥淚 just couldn鈥檛 pay the bills anymore,鈥� she says.

When the American Heart Association, which she had done freelance writing for, offered her a full-time job with remote work and higher pay, Damm felt like she had no choice but to take it. She left teaching in 2024.

鈥淚 miss it every day,鈥� she says.

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This feeling of frustration is one that leaders at New York’s know well. Situated between Rochester and Syracuse, this rural district of 750 students is often seen as a stepping stone by educators. Many new teachers get a few years under their belt, then take off for higher-paying suburban schools. 

Even before the pandemic hit, Clyde-Savannah experienced a districtwide employee turnover rate of 25%. This churn, particularly among teachers and support staff, disrupted the continuity and quality of students鈥� learning. At the elementary level alone, six to seven teachers out of 21 would leave in any given year.

Experienced educators carry institutional knowledge about curriculum implementation, assessment practices, and effective strategies for meeting student needs. When a large portion of staff leaves each year, districts must repeatedly rebuild this expertise. While new teachers often bring enthusiasm and fresh ideas, their learning curve can affect the consistency of instruction and student outcomes, at least temporarily.

As superintendent for Clyde-Savannah, I knew the district could not compete on salary. Instead, school leaders and board members focused on what we were able to control: the district culture. Could we build a better workplace, where people felt genuinely supported? Could we reduce teachers’ stress, both inside and outside the classroom? Most importantly, could we create an environment where educators were excited to come to school each day?

By reimagining its approach to recruitment, the district increased its overall employee retention rate to 98% from 2023 to 2025 and made Clyde-Savannah a top choice for prospective teachers. Finalists who were speaking with neighboring districts or had received offers told our interviewers they had withdrawn those applications in order to accept positions at Clyde-Savannah. In addition, I have seen first-year teachers choose to relocate to the Clyde-Savannah community, which is key, as early-career educators typically move only when they view a district as a place to build both a career and a lasting home.

The district’s approach to changing its culture took several forms. First, through conversations with staff and teachers, district leaders discovered that a lack of accessible and affordable child care was often the biggest deterrent to employment. Many talented educators were leaving the classroom because the high cost of child care made working full time financially impractical.

To ease the burden on working families, the district opened a for all employees in 2023. Rather than contract services to outside caregivers, Clyde-Savannah became the first school system approved by the New York Office of Family and Child Services to operate a district-run child care center. Today, 18 children between the ages of 6 weeks and 4 years attend the program each day, providing families with much-needed support while ensuring their little ones will be ready for kindergarten.

For many employees, but especially support staff and teacher鈥檚 aides earning minimum wage, the program has been life-changing. For one, being relieved of the cost of child care means she was able to purchase a car for her family. Another teacher chose Clyde-Savannah because the availability of care made it possible for him and his wife to both pursue the careers they wanted.

For Clyde-Savannah teachers and staff, the cost savings and peace of mind of knowing their children are well cared for outweigh the lure of a modest salary bump a district away.

The second initiative involved filling a longstanding gap in what had been a coffee shop desert. As a small town, Clyde lacked a spot for teachers, staff and students to grab their daily caffeine fix. So the district turned a high school classroom into a caf茅 that rivals popular coffee chains. 

The coffee shop is staffed by trained student volunteers who earn community service hours toward graduation. In the process, these young baristas gain hands-on experience in food preparation, customer service and promotion, equipping them with marketable skills.

Students prepare drinks using standard coffee shop equipment, such as brewers, syrups and espresso-style machines. The cafe serves walk-in customers, makes deliveries to all district buildings during designated times of the day and stays open after school hours to accommodate staff, visitors, teachers and community members attending meetings or activities after 3 p.m.

Because many school bus drivers are on the road during the shop’s regular hours, the district created a drive-through option just for them. Drivers can pull up their bus outside the school doors, and students will bring out their coffee order 鈥� a small but meaningful way to include transportation staff.

When the caf茅 first launched, the district lacked the budget for paid staff. So, I stepped in as store manager, working at 6 in the morning to help get everything prepped for the day ahead. Eventually, because of the caf茅鈥檚 popularity, it earned enough money to pay for a full-time manager to run the shop. 

By creatively addressing a community need, Clyde-Savannah demonstrated that the district is actively listening and responding to its staff. Teachers value having a place in which to connect, collaborate and recharge. At the same time, prospective hires see this investment in staff well-being as an advantage when comparing offers from other districts. As competition intensifies for a shrinking applicant pool of qualified teachers, small districts must think creatively to set themselves apart. Higher salaries are important, but compensation does not always guarantee fulfillment. For many educators, job satisfaction comes from feeling happy, supported and genuinely appreciated 鈥� benefits that cannot be measured in dollars alone.