COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina has faced a teacher shortage crisis in recent years, and the pandemic might be holding the state back from improving.
"Last school year, our schools had 555 teaching vacancies across South Carolina. We don’t have the data yet for this year yet, but given recent trends, it's likely we’re going to see some number in that ballpark again," said Patrick Kelly with the Palmetto State Teachers' Association.
SC for Ed board member Lisa Ellis said teachers are at their lowest in terms of morale right now. "First, we are concerned about our health and safety," Ellis said. "Second, most of us are having to teach in person and virtual students at the same time. This is extremely difficult to do, and we feel we are not meeting the needs of any of our students with this expectation.”
News19 checked in with school districts in the Midlands to see if they have teachers resigning due to COVID-19.
Richland School District Two said they actually have fewer classroom vacancies this year. However, 12 of their teachers have resigned due to COVID-19 so far. “Out of the 12, eight specifically said they quit due to fear of being exposed to the virus while working," said spokesperson Libby Roof.
Richland One said out of the 159 teachers that have left their district since March, three stated it was due to the coronavirus.
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Lexington County School District One and Lexington School District Two each had two teachers resign because of COVID-19 concerns. Lexington Three has only had one teacher resign for that reason.
Spokesperson for Kershaw County, Mary Anne Byrd said, “We have seven who have left due to COVID-related reasons. Five retired due to COVID, one resigned due to family-related responsibilities, and one resigned due to family-related responsibilities as well as exposure to COVID.”
Orangeburg County has lost two teachers due to concerns as well.
Several school districts including Lexington Four, Newberry County, Fairfield County and Clarendon District Three said that of their teachers that have resigned or retired this year, none have cited COVID-19 as the reason. In fact, Lexington School District Four said they’ve retained more teachers this year than they did last year.
News19 is waiting to hear back from Lexington Richland Five, Sumter County, Lee County, Clarendon One and Clarendon Two School Districts.
These numbers don’t give a complete picture of the pandemic’s effect on teachers, but they show COVID-19 is not helping South Carolina’s teacher shortage crisis.
The South Carolina Department of Education hopes to improve teacher retention and recruitment with incentives like their loan forgiveness program and teacher housing initiative.