Why Texas Teachers Leave the Classroom: A Qualitative Look into Non-Retirement

In recent years, political leaders, media sources, and the public at large have seen and discussed the high number of public-school classroom teachers who are leaving the profession. Much of the discussion has focused historically on low pay for teachers, which is often compared to professionals in other fields with similar education and experience backgrounds (e.g., Garcia & Weiss, 2019; Allegretto, S., 2023). The media coverage seems to have little impact on bringing teaching salaries in line with what other professionals with similar backgrounds are paid (Garcia & Weiss, 2019).

Over the last 40+ years, a group of university researchers in conjunction with a professional teacher organization have asked Texas PK-12 teachers if they are seriously considering leaving the teaching profession (Brown et al., 2019; Maninger et al., 2011; Potter et al., 2023). In the context of a questionnaire concerning teacher moonlighting practices, the underlying assumption, perhaps, has been that money is at the root of the decision-making for educators. Current researchers on this project are looking deeper into the data to see if there are other factors contributing to teacher attrition.