Mesa Public Schools experience teacher shortage despite partnership with MCC education program
The Mesa Public School District continues to face teacher shortages despite programs in conjunction with Mesa Community College that help guide prospective educators toward the field.
MCC’s partnership with Mesa Public Schools allows students to be paired with current teachers, as well as other students from Arizona State University, in order to give them more practical experience before they begin their careers.
“We have opportunities for students to go in and work in classrooms and get that firsthand experience,” said Tawn Hauptli, a faculty member in the education department at MCC and a former teacher herself. “We’re hopeful that we’re going to develop a new breed of teachers who not only teach differently … but they’re also excited and optimistic about their future career in education.”
The shortage has left many schools throughout the district without adequate personnel and many teachers with a heavier workload.
Vanessa Mayberry, an English teacher at Mountain View High School in Mesa, believes that the issue is perpetuated by low pay, which causes educators to leave the field in search of better wages.”
“The amount of work that it takes to do this job compared to the pay [teachers are] receiving is not equal,” Mayberry noted.
Hauptli recognizes this perspective as well and understands the validity of educators’ monetary troubles.
“Compared to other professions that have the degree requirements and the amount of time put into the profession, we’re sorely underpaid,” said Hauptli.
In addition to low wages, Mayberry believes a lack of support from district officials has contributed to teacher scarcity after the outbreak of COVID-19.
“The district is constantly making changes in which they never consult the actual people it’s impacting,” she stated. “You kind of feel like you are swimming upstream.”
These new teachers have been observed to have lower retention rates because they can leave the field with less concern that their state retirement benefits will be negatively affected. She argues veteran instructors may feel compelled to stay to avoid the potential forfeiture of their pension.
“[New teachers are] not tethered to that retirement so they can easily walk away, and we had two [teachers] quit just this last year in the middle of the year.”
Hauptli believes that students in the education program at MCC are not taught to be ignorant of these realities, and are instead made aware in order to spark the potential for change within the domain.
“We don’t try to sugarcoat it,” she stated. “[teachers] need to let our policymakers know that some of these things that they’re asking of us … they’re unreasonable. And they’re driving people out of the profession.”
With teacher retention rates still in decline, students within Mesa Public Schools will continue to bear the consequences as classrooms are left without adequate support and current instructors are unable to fill the vacancies left by their peers. Mayberry believes these students are not contributors to the issue.
“It’s not the students. [They] are not the problem,” she said. “The problem is with the system itself.”
