Somewhere in my post history is a link to a school district in Georgia who had dozens of faculty/staff die from covid over a few short weeks last summer. The median age of deceased faculty was 40 something. Teachers live this reality, but if they request PPE and vaccination standards they are called satanist traitors to America and get death threats.
This doesn’t even touch upon the moral panic currently sweeping certain parts of the country, where they are looking to criminalize teachers if they say the wrong thing to the wrong student. Literally they are calling teachers “groomers”. Do you have that straight? We teachers are unpatriotic, satanist, groomers who should simultaneously be armed to protect ourselves from gunmen, while our words are policed by the state. Oh and we are also expected to die for our classroom in case of a shooting.
Teachers are looking over their shoulders from every direction, so it really won’t surprise me if this exodus comes.
edit to the dead comment: my perspective comes from my own experience and that of my fellow teachers. And also that link I mentioned that I can't be bothered to dig up right now.
edit2: here's that link I mentioned: https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/60-georgia-teachers...
This kind of event went basically unnoticed in the larger scheme of things. But this kind of situation happened all across the country, without any time to grieve or even reflect on what was happening. Teachers were expected to be back to work, and worse we were told that it was perfectly fine and safe. Meanwhile many school districts were running short on substitute teachers to fill in for the covid deaths and hospitalizations within their ranks. GA had it worse than most -- average age of dead faculty that summer was just 46.