Minnesota is still struggling to retain teachers, according to a new state Department of Education report that revealed an increase in teachers leaving their positions.
The 2017 Teacher Supply and Demand report, released Wednesday, finds that the number of teachers leaving their jobs has increased 34 percent since 2008. After three years, more than a quarter of teachers have left their jobs, and about 15.1 percent leave after the first year, according to the report’s average percentage of teachers leaving.
Charter schools and school districts also are finding it difficult to hire teachers, as are public schools nationwide.
Several of the trends "threaten" the quality of education in Minnesota schools, said Education Minnesota, the state teacher's union.
"The shortage of qualified teachers has gone from an issue, to a problem, to a crisis, in only a few short years," Education Minnesota president Denise Specht said in a news release. "We are losing too many great teachers because they can't make ends meet, they feel disrespected by politicians and they're incredibly frustrated by excessive testing" and other policies that cut into teaching.
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The department reports its findings on the state's teacher workforce to the Legislature every two years.
As school districts diversify, the state found a slight increase in the number of newly licensed black teachers but a decrease in white teachers in the past three years. The state reported that teachers of color add up to only 4.3 percent of the state workforce and 7.7 percent of newly licensed teachers.
The report shows that 97 percent of the teachers employed in the region including St. Louis, Carlton, Lake, Aitkin, Cook, Itasca and Koochiching counties are white, with just five black teachers. The number of Native American teachers in that region has grown from 23 to 38 since 2010.
The News Tribune contributed to this report.
