GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas — Leaders in a lot of Texas school districts are working to fill job openings this summer as many longtime educators are calling it quits.

A recent survey found 1 in 4 teachers were considering leaving the profession following the 2020-2021 school year. That’s compared to an average of 1 in 6 in past years. The main reason seems to be stress and burnout after a particularly difficult last two years in the classroom.

Tavia Gibson is one of many who didn’t just think about leaving, but actually left. After a long career in public education in which she worked in districts like Grand Prairie and Cedar Hill, she decided this was the year to go it alone and try to forge her own educational path.

Today, the longtime middle school teacher stands in her own school: the Perfect Place to Bee Learning Academy in Grand Prairie. She’s now taking on early learning for kids between the ages of 18 months and 5 years old along with after-school programs for those up to 12 years old.

“My thought was, if I start with the babies, then I can contribute to a society where students are learning; they’re knowledgeable,” said Gibson.

Her academy’s only been open for about six weeks, but already Gibson has several dozen students under her care and her curriculum.

Gibson said that for her, that was really one of the big driving forces of going into business for herself: getting to teach her way without the rules and standardizations of the public school systems. She said she’s been considering making the move for a long time, but the past two years pushed her to finally go for it.

“The Zooming and the non-social contact; there were a lot of things that drove this decision,” said Gibson.

George Rangel, executive vice president for the Alliance/AFT Local Union 2260 in Dallas, said he’s talked to a lot of teachers in his system recently who have also decided to move on, but unlike Gibson, many are just done with education altogether. 

“One teacher is starting a trucking business,” said Rangel. “I have another teacher that’s applying to be a police officer.”

Rangel said there’s a general feeling of burnout among many in the profession. Many of the reasons for it are long-standing ones like low pay, disagreements over standardized testing, and being fed up with evaluation systems. 

However, he said recent events are adding to the dissatisfaction. Many teachers across the country have become targets for the ire of some parents over how certain political and historical viewpoints are or are not presented in the classroom. Plus the challenges of the pandemic have forced teachers to take on more roles than ever in strange new ways, while often putting their own health and well-being second.

“These teachers and employees have been counselors, they have been nurses, they have been everything for students,” said Rangel.

Rangel hopes the current exodus of educators will serve as a wake-up call to school districts and lawmakers everywhere and will lead to some quality of life changes for educators to ensure the best don’t leave the field in burnout. He fears that otherwise students will be the ones who suffer.