Despite a decrease in teacher resignation rates during the 2023-2024 school year, Frisco ISD is still facing a teacher shortage for the current school year. Because this impacts all aspects of school life, students provided their insight into changes that will occur due to the shortage.
Senior Pritika Kharkwal provided a reason as to why an increasing number of teachers are leaving the education industry.
“I think the number one reason is salaries because obviously there’s inflation going on, prices are skyrocketing really high and affordability is pretty low these days,” Kharkwal said.
Caitlin Boon, a senior, explained what can occur in the aftermath of the teacher shortage which includes an impact on specific departments and Mega Lunch removal.
“I think there’s just a lot of ripple effects of consequences of those teacher cuts,“ Boon said. “Obviously, the main ones are Mega Lunch getting taken away, there’s a lot of coaches specifically getting cut, and so that’s going to be affecting the sports side and the athletics side of our school. And also, I know that students-wise, we’re still at full-capacity.”
The teacher shortage also affects the student-to-teacher ratio in class which is proven to affect student success, well being, and curriculum retention.
“If it’s 40 students in a class, the teacher is going to be overwhelmed because there’s so many kids and they’re not all going to listen,” Neha Vimal Raj, a senior, said. “And then keeping that in order [would] just be so exhausting to them. Those people who really do need the help won’t have the help they need. Teachers will not have that separate time.”
In addition, Vimal Raj described the effects of a teacher shortage in regards to student clubs and organizations and opportunities in the future.
“Well, with the teacher shortage there’s not going to be that many club sponsors that will be available,” Vimal Raj said. “Without Mega Lunch, we’re going to have to meet before or after school for clubs and other activities. And if there’s a teacher shortage, that reduces the amount of rooms you can use, [teachers] you can use, and just everything in general decreases and the same opportunities that we had as freshmen will not be there anymore.”
Kharkwal also detailed the topic of funding and how community members should keep the issue in mind as the district faces issues of teacher shortages.
“So it’s very uncertain what’s going to happen, but I think that maybe we can’t change much of funding, but funding allocations should be more looked at,” Kharkwal said. “How are we dividing the funds that we do have?”
Kharkwal emphasized how having a sufficient number of teachers is essential to the success of a school.
“Everything needs a system and that system can’t be put into place without the proper human resources,” Kharkwal said.
