Wisconsin’s education workforce struggling to retain teachers, according to a new report from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Dr. Amy Starzecki, the superintendent of Superior school district, said their teachers are fairing better than other schools in Wisconsin.

“We need to continue to fund public schools at the rates to keep up with our inflationary costs and CPI,” Dr. Starzecki said. “Being able to do that will allow us to keep our programs and services in place to provide those mentorship programs.”

According to the DPI report four out of ten first-year teachers leave Wisconsin or the profession altogether after six years.

“We don’t have maybe the same challenges like smaller communities in Wisconsin do when it comes to finding really hard jobs like special education teachers, family consumer science, facts, industrial tech. Smaller districts really struggle to be able to find licensed people for those positions.”

Peggy Word-Solson, the president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council said there’s several ways to address teacher retention in Wisconsin.

“In short, raise teacher pay, address crushing workloads, restore our right to negotiate with our employers,” Word-Solson said. “Explore new ways to support teachers like the one we’re talking about today. Without these critical fixes, the exodus of teachers will continue.”

Dr. Jill Underly, the State Superintendent of Wisconsin, said legislative action needs to happen to help teacher retention.

“We are taking action at the DPI to the extent that we can. But we need the legislature to take action. Our state legislature needs to address this crisis head-on,” Dr. Underly said. “We cannot wait another entire year until the next budget. We must demand that our elected leaders make the necessary investments in our public schools, in our students, in our educators.”

For more information about the Wisconsin’s education workforce struggling you can read the DPI report here. Also for other stories about education you can read more here.