Reply to The wisdom of rewarding Montgomery’s school employees (Washington Post)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]My SIL was an elementary school teacher. She and many of her co-workers would leave after 5 years but it has nothing to do with raises. The issue is lack of affordable childcare and childcare that fits a teacher's schedule. Teachers are predominantly women and many get married and start having kids within their first five years. Childcare in this area is extremely expensive and the models out there do not provide any options for only 10 months of care. Teachers also don't have the flexibility to work from home or take an afternoon off for a kid's doctor's appointment.

If there were affordable quality childcare options, childcare that would run only 10 months, and more teachers so that they could take more flextime then you would see more teachers staying in the profession past 5 years. Some teachers will still decide to stay home but many would keep working if it wasn't so logistically problematic.[/quote]

I'm familiar with a lot of research that studies teachers and teacher education as part of my job. While it is true that up to 50% of new teachers leave the field within 5 years, it is roundly concluded that there are many reasons for leaving and the majority of those reasons have to do with working conditions, school governance, and compensation over time (though this last one is not the top reason most leave the field.).

While affordable childcare is an important social issue, it is not listed as a reason teachers leave the profession, so unless you have a recent study that uncovers this new phenomenon, I'm guessing you are just generalizing from your SIL's experience and cannot possible draw the conclusions you do about teacher retention and childcare.
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