MADISON (WKOW) – A new report released Thursday by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction finds that many of the state’s teachers are choosing to leave the state or profession.
“This report shows what we’ve known for some time now: Our education workforce is in crisis,” State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly said. “Wisconsin’s kids are suffering from losing quality teachers.”
The report shows nearly 40 percent of new teachers are leaving the state or the profession in their first six years on the job.
“We need a well educated citizenry, if we're going to have a strong democracy,” Underly said.
The report also found nearly a third of Wisconsin's new licensed educators aren't taking teaching jobs in-state, a fact education advocates blamed on declining teacher pay and increasing stress.
The report analyzed surveys of Wisconsin school districts conducted during the 2021-22 school year. It also looked at salary data between 2010 and 2022. During that period, when adjusted for inflation, teacher pay has fallen 19 percent on average.
Underly went after the republican-controlled legislature for not providing enough funding for education, an assertion that Republican state Sen. Eric Wimberger from Green Bay refutes.
“When people say we don't have enough, they never, they never come up with a figure or a plan that describes what enough is,” Wimberger said. “If we actually gave them their definition of enough, and then they failed, they would have nowhere to blame except for themselves.”
Underly wants the Legislature to at least help school funding keep up with the rate of inflation. “It's been well funded below inflation for at least the last 15 years,” Underly said. “And so our school districts are making up the cost by raising local taxes through referendum.”
The state superintendent argues that republicans are failing public schools by sending education funding elsewhere.
“They put money into private schools to put money into parental choice voucher programs, which of course, our public schools don't see,” she said.
