Arizona Sun

THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1956

One Out Of Eight Teachers Resign From Ariz. Schools

PAY NOT ONLY REASON WHY TEACHERS QUIT

It seems that the Arizona Education Association would have Arizonans believe that the turnover among teachers because of their salaries is substantially greater than it is.

The association gave a news release on this subject to Arizona newspapers. The suggested headline said:

One Out of Eight Teachers Resign From Arizona Schools

But did "one out of eight" actually resign? Let us examine the figures in the news release.

The association estimates there are 7,892 elementary and high school teachers in our public schools. "One out of eight" would therefore be 981 teachers who have resigned.

But down in the second paragraph of the handout, it is plainly stated that only 780 have resigned. That is only one out of ten.

At the same time, another 159 teachers were fired or released from their jobs. In the euphemistic language of the profession, their "contracts were not renewed."

Apparently the association included these 159 teachers among those who actually did resign, and thus was able to boost its "resignation" figure to one-out-of-eight.

Despite the association's apparent willingness to mislead Arizonans with a "scare headline," it has performed a useful service. In the same handout, it gave us a breakdown of the reasons why 780 teachers resigned and another 159 were not re-hired:

1) 27.7 per cent to fulfill family obligations, and to marry.
2) 18.6 per cent to teach elsewhere in Arizona.
3) 16.9 per cent did not have contracts renewed.
4) 16.8 per cent miscellaneous, low salaries, inadequate housing.
5) 10.7 per cent to teach outside the state.
6) 5.3 per cent to take other jobs for more pay.
7) 3.3 per cent to retire.
8) 0.7 per cent to retire because of ill health.

These are the important figures. They show the teacher turnover in its true light. For example, nearly half of the departing teachers had perfectly normal reasons for leaving, such as getting married (reflecting the high percentage of women in the profession), getting fired, or retiring. And so if you add Nos. 1, 3, 7 and 8 you find that 48.6 per cent have normal reasons.

Of those who are departing, nearly three out of ten will continue to teach, most of them in the state, but in another district. You obtain this figure by adding Nos. 2 and 5, getting 29.1 per cent.

Only 29.1 per cent are leaving teaching because of salary or housing considerations. This is the result of adding Nos. 4 and 6. This is only 2.6 per cent of the teachers employed in the state - a rather low rate in any view.

A shortage of good teachers may indeed exist. But all of the blame cannot be placed on salaries. Teaching is an honorable and challenging profession, with reasonable hours and a three-month vacation in which to relax, or improve one's qualifications. The pay is better today than most government or white collar jobs. To meet the shortage, teachers should be more vigorously recruited, and more youngsters should be induced to train for it.

The shortage, however light or severe it may be, will not be solved by misleading the public.

(Yuma Daily Sun Via The Arizona News)