CBS Morning News did a story on Oklahoma's trouble recruiting and retaining teachers and you can find it Here. Oklahoma not only experiences a severe teacher shortage, they cannot retain teachers they recruit. Many of the red states have similar problems recruiting and retaining teachers.
While New York City does not suffer from a teacher shortage like Oklahoma is, except for the Bronx. Like Oklahoma, many teachers in New York City don't make it a career in the New York City schools. Some go to the higher paying and better resourced suburbs. Others leave teaching, and of the recently hired Tier VI teachers, few will make it to their vesting year for a pension and retiree health benefits.
Whether you teach in Oklahoma or New York city, teachers complain about the same things.
- Lack of respect
- large class sizes
- Inadequate pay
- Under resourced schools
- Too much paperwork
- Lack of independence
- Too many useless meetings and time consuming and unnecessary Professional Development.