The job parents stopped doing

Economic Policy Institute (Allegretto 2024): US public-school teachers earn approximately 24% less in weekly wages than other college-educated workers with similar experience and education. The 'teacher pay penalty' was 6% in 1996 and 17% in 2016; it has grown in every measurement decade. Total-compensation penalty (including benefits) is ~17%. The growing gap, documented in the same methodology across three decades, is the clearest measurable form of relative-wage compression in the US labor market.

NEA: the average US public-school teacher starting salary is ~$45,000 (2024). Nearly 30% of districts start teachers below $40,000. In 20 states the starting salary is below the living wage for a single adult per MIT's Living Wage Calculator. Starting pay has risen ~$4,000 (nominal) in the past decade, against cumulative inflation of ~30%. The gap between starting teacher pay and entry-level pay for other bachelor-degree professions has widened in every state.

RAND State of the American Teacher 2024-25: US teachers report working 53 hours per week on average during the school year, of which ~38 are paid in-school hours. The remaining 15 hours (lesson planning, grading, parent communication, mandatory trainings, email) are unpaid and typically performed evenings or weekends. The work-week figure has risen from ~46 hours in 2006; the paid portion has not.

AdoptAClassroom + Savings.com annual survey: the average US public-school teacher spends roughly $750 of their own after-tax income per year on classroom supplies (pencils, paper, books, snacks, tissues, hygiene items students need and their households cannot provide). The federal Educator Expense Deduction caps reimbursement at $300/year, which is itemized out of reach for most teachers taking the standard deduction. 94% of teachers report spending their own money on supplies.

RAND State of the American Teacher 2025: 53% of US K-12 teachers report burnout, defined clinically (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, reduced sense of accomplishment). The rate is ~2× the equivalent burnout reading for US workers overall. 70% of teachers report staff shortages at their school; 82% of schools have multiple unfilled positions.

RAND 2024-25: 66% of new US teachers (in their first three years) and 45% of teachers overall cite 'managing student behavior' as the most stressful part of the job. 56% report increased classroom disruptions from student misconduct vs pre-pandemic; 49% report increased hallway/outside-class rowdiness; 48% report increased acts of disrespect toward teaching staff. The pandemic accelerated an existing trend; it did not start it.

Stanford Education Recovery Scorecard (2024 update): US students are on average about one-third of a school year behind pre-pandemic trajectories, with recovery highly uneven across districts. Students in the highest-poverty districts lost the most and have recovered the least. The same teachers who were not pandemic respondents are the ones being asked to close the gap on top of curriculum expectations, with smaller staffs.

NEA / American Psychological Association Task Force on Violence Against Educators: approximately 33% of US K-12 teachers report at least one incident of physical aggression by a student directed at them in the past year, ranging from being kicked/hit to serious assault. An additional ~55% report verbal aggression or threats. Reporting is thought to undercount incidents because of administrator pressure on teachers to 'manage it.' The rate has risen roughly 40% since 2011.

EdWeek Research Center 2024 survey: 78% of US public-school teachers say parents in their district are not consistently holding students accountable for academic work or behavior. 68% say parent-teacher communication has become more adversarial since 2019. Teachers report being blamed for outcomes (low grades, behavioral consequences) that pre-pandemic norms would have attributed to the student or home. This is the single largest shift teachers identify in the last 5 years.

CDC: approximately 1 in 5 US children ages 3-17 has a diagnosed mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral condition (anxiety, depression, ADHD, autism, conduct disorder). Recommended school-counselor ratio: 1 counselor per 250 students. Actual US average: ~1 per 376. In under-funded districts, the ratio exceeds 1:500. Frontline triage of the student mental-health crisis is performed by general-education classroom teachers without clinical training, because no one else is available.

National Center for Education Statistics: the share of US public-school students with individualized education programs (IEPs) or Section 504 plans has grown from ~12% in 2000 to ~20% in 2023; the absolute number of students with special-education plans has grown ~1.9×. The legal obligations under IDEA have grown with the count; the classroom support (aides, specialists) has not. The difference falls on the classroom teacher, who is legally responsible for accommodating each plan while simultaneously teaching the full general-ed curriculum to 25-30 other students.

NCES 2024-25: 77% of US public schools report enforcing a student cell-phone ban during classroom hours, up from 43% in 2022. Enforcement is teacher-performed: checking pockets, confiscating devices, and handling parent complaints when devices are taken. 8 states (FL, LA, IN, OH, MN, CA, NY, VA) have statewide school-day phone restrictions. The phone-ban enforcement burden is net-new work assigned to teachers because parents cannot or will not enforce it at home, even though teachers are the ones held accountable if class attention collapses.

University of Missouri 2025 survey of ~500 US public-school teachers: 78% have seriously considered leaving the profession since 2020. Primary reasons cited: lack of administrative support, excessive workloads, inadequate compensation, and challenging student behaviors. Actual quit rates are lower (~8% annually) because the alternative-career transition for mid-career teachers is practically difficult, not because working conditions are tolerable.

RAND 2024-25 / Learning Policy Institute: 86% of US school districts report one or more unfilled teaching positions; 57% of schools in high-poverty areas are understaffed. The national shortage is variously estimated at 55,000-300,000 unfilled positions depending on methodology. Some districts have moved to four-day school weeks, emergency-certified uncertified staff, or permanent substitutes as primary classroom leads. Special education, math, science, and English-as-a-second-language are the deepest shortages.

AACTE / Title II federal teacher-prep data: enrollment in US teacher preparation programs has fallen approximately 30% since 2010. The drop is disproportionate in specific subject areas (secondary math, secondary science) and at HBCUs (historically Black colleges), which previously produced a large share of Black teachers. The pipeline contraction is structural; the number of people entering the profession each year has been below replacement demand for 10+ years.

RAND 2025: only 35% of US schools report using any school funding for staff mental-health support services. 59% offer help through an employee-assistance program (EAP), which is typically 3-8 short telehealth sessions that most clinical psychologists rate as insufficient for sustained burnout recovery. The combination of high workload, student-behavior exposure, and minimal employer-side mental-health support is the closest analog in US labor to conditions in nursing, which has its own separate shortage crisis.