{"id":26903,"date":"2022-08-02T18:49:37","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T22:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=26903"},"modified":"2022-08-02T18:54:40","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T22:54:40","slug":"cronkite-news-nations-teachers-in-health-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/08\/02\/cronkite-news-nations-teachers-in-health-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: Nation’s teachers in health crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Teacher\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\tTeacher Mental Health\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t
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Navigating low salaries, pandemic worries and burnout: Many teachers will tell you this is the job description of modern educators. The result is an expandin…<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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Cronkite News Video by Teacher Mental Health: \r\nTeacher Mental Health\r\n<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
Teachers face mental health crisis because of low pay, pandemic stress, scant support<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, August 2, 2022<\/div>\r\n
By Cami Parrish<\/div>\r\n
Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n
cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nGILBERT, Arizona — Just weeks before teacher Michelle Capriotti is set to leave her family to take a better-paying job in California, she stands in her living room on a recent afternoon, chatting with her son about the changes coming their way.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cHow do you feel about me leaving?\u201d Capriotti asks Christopher, a 17-year-old with special needs, as he makes his way down the stairs.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cThey actually called today. You\u2019re fired so you don\u2019t even have to go!\u201d he says in jest.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cFired from a job I haven\u2019t even started?\u201d she replies, laughing.

<\/P>\r\nTurning away, she notes that Christopher does this whenever her move comes up.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cHe is not happy that I\u2019m leaving.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nCapriotti, a public school teacher in the East Valley for more than 27 years, said she took the job in San Jose because she\u2019ll double her pay and get better benefits. Come August, she will fly home every other week to see her family. Even with the cost of airfare, she said, she\u2019ll still be making more money.

<\/P>\r\nCapriotti says her story is common among Arizona teachers. She anticipates a \u201cmass exodus\u201d of educators in coming years \u2013 due to low pay, rising stress made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, and an overall feeling of enough is enough.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cI know more teachers leaving this year than I ever have in my career, and they\u2019re not leaving because they\u2019ve reached the age of retirement,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re tired. It was one thing to hold it together during a crisis, but at some point teachers became the bad guy.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s taxing. It\u2019s frustrating.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\"Teacher<\/a>

Michelle Capriotti sifts through a pile of school books in her guestroom in Gilbert on June 14, 2022. An Arizona teacher for 27 years, Capriotti says the pandemic was a grim turning point for her, with volatile school board meetings and teachers often on the firing line. \u201cThat was the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back.\u201d Photo by Troy Hill \/ Cronkite News<\/figcaption>\r\n

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A five-alarm crisis<\/div>\r\nNavigating low salaries, minimal benefits, short staffing, pandemic worries, exhaustion and burnout: Many teachers would tell you this is the job description of today\u2019s educators.

<\/P>\r\nThe result, studies show, is a widespread and growing mental health crisis among U.S. teachers \u2013 a problem so grim that many are leaving the field or, like Capriotti, making drastic lifestyle changes.

<\/P>\r\nLong before the pandemic, 46% of K-12 teachers reported high levels of job-related stress, according to a 2014 Gallup report<\/a> on the state of America\u2019s schools.

<\/P>\r\nFast forward to 2022. A new RAND report<\/a> finds that 73% of teachers feel frequent job-related stress, 28% have symptoms of depression, and 59% report burnout. Rates of burnout and depression are highest among teachers of color.

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