One in four teachers plan to do this within the next year

Last week, our Minnesota twins had a couple of days off, so they visited us at the The Bison Ranch.

This week, our North Dakota grandkids will have a break from school on Thursday and Friday. Both states call off two school days in October for annual teachers’ conventions. The focus is on providing our educators—teachers and school leaders alike—with professional development. The conventions also give them a chance to network and address the issues facing education today.

Staring back at all of us is a critical teacher shortage. Last March, North Dakota’s Education Standards and Practices Board designated teaching positions in ALL content areas as critical shortage areas—not just traditionally hard-to-fill subjects like high school math or science, but elementary education, too.

North Dakota is far from alone: every state reported teacher shortages in multiple teaching areas for the 2024–2025 school year. While shortages in some states and regions go back decades, the problem has grown more urgent in recent years. Simply put, schools face two challenges at once: keeping teachers in the profession and preparing enough new teachers to take their places.

According to a 2025 analysis by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, enrollment in teacher preparation programs declined by roughly one-third between 2012–2013 and 2022–2023. 

Pair that with findings from a recent “Educator Recognition and Retention Survey,” which reports that one in four U.S. public school teachers plans to quit within the next 12 months.

One in four.

Why are teachers fed up with their careers? We can all point to low pay, especially here in North Dakota. Our state ranks 41st in the nation for average teacher salaries, according to data compiled by the National Education Association for the 2024–2025 school year. That doesn’t square with our place in state rankings of GDP per capita: North Dakota is the 16th richest state.

Yeah, but North Dakotans are all underpaid, right? True, we do consistently rank in the lower tier for average wages. But that comparison doesn’t exactly justify what we are paying our teachers. North Dakota’s average wages rank between 26th and 33rd nationally. But teachers place 41st!

Think about that. Then couple it with other reasons teachers are ditching their careers: burnout, student behavior, and something else I learned about in a conversation last week with a retired Arizona teacher.

He said he walked out of a 30-year career he loved far sooner than he’d planned. In the aftermath of COVID’s disruption to his students’ education, he felt grave concern for them and their chances of regaining what they had lost when the school resorted to remote learning. He felt that the Gilbert school where he had taught for so many years no longer had his back--and the backs of teachers, period.

Lack of support from school leadership is another reason teachers leave their classrooms.

In my mind, this is more than a survey result. It is a guidepost for schools everywhere.

We need to support our teachers! Pay them better, listen to them, honor their expertise, teach our children to respect them. And recognize that our futures depend on turning this teacher attrition problem around.

Parents, school administration, legislators and the American people: WHAT ARE WE DOING ABOUT THIS?