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Horace Mann Educators Corporation, a financial services company “focused on providing America’s educators and school employees with insurance and retirement solutions,” today released a survey of U.S. teachers and their reactions to working conditions during the pandemic, “The Hidden Impact on COVID-19 On Educators.” The short form of the results: teachers are working more, enjoying it less, facing financial challenges, and, in some cases, thinking about retiring rather than continuing under these conditions.
1,240 teachers (age 21-64) responded to the survey. Horace Mann did not provide additional information about how the respondents were contacted or selected, nor any geographic breakdown of the respondents. Local conditions vary considerably right now, so as with many such surveys, these results can be taken with a grain of salt. Still, they provide another set of data points worth considering. So what did Horace Mann find?
The greatest number of teachers in the survey were working in person (497) while 319 were teaching online and 379 were working in a hybrid model. But a full 924 (77%) of respondents said that work was taking more time this year than last year, with only 52 (4.3%) saying they were spending less time teaching this year. This may come as a surprise to some critics; on Twitter, one poster called the current situation a “de facto teacher strike,” as if teachers are not doing any actual work currently. In fact, preparing lessons to be delivered through a variety of pipelines requires extra preparation.
When asked if they were enjoying their work in education more or less now than they did last year, 113 (9.7%) said they are enjoying it more, while 698 (60%) said less. This is not entirely a surprise; google “teachers frustrated by remote learning” and read accounts from all over the country of teacher (and parent) frustration with pandemic education.
Asked about their confidence in their district’s safety precautions, nearly two-thirds said they felt secure or somewhat secure. Only 14% felt very secure, and 20% felt not secure at all. The survey was taken in October and November, and at that time only 261 respondents had a close family member who had tested positive for Covid-19; 78 of those were a case that involved hospitalization.
Surprisingly, given all that, only 27% of the educators responding were considering leaving the profession, and that includes 11% who are only considering a leave of absence. That may seem like a large number, but compare it to pre-pandemic surveys like the annual PDK International survey, which last year found 50% of teachers considering a professional exit (PDK also works from a fairly small sample).
This has been a tough issue to track. A USA Today poll in May determined that 20% of teachers wouldn’t return to their classroom if it opened in the fall. Education Week attempted to figure out if retirements had actually spiked, and they found uncertain data with definite regional variations. This all unfolds against the backdrop of an ongoing problem filling teaching positions and a pandemic spike in difficulty hiring substitute teachers (Garland, Texas is just one district that has been forced to send administrators back to the classroom as subs).
The Horace Mann survey also focused on teachers’ financial health. Almost 90% of teachers surveyed were at least somewhat confident that their health insurance would cover any health issues that may arise. About 70% were at least somewhat confident that their benefits would cover unplanned time off should health issues hit.
64% reported they had stopped paying into a savings account; almost 30% have stopped paying into retirement. An alarming 12% are not making mortgage or rent payments. Only slightly over 50% felt they could handle an unexpected $1,000 expense.
