SC has a teacher shortage. But teachers who leave can be blackballed from coming back

COLUMBIA, S.C -- South Carolina schools are suffering from a shortage of hundreds of teachers, with the number of vacancies only growing. But that hasn’t stopped the state from barring scores of teachers who may want to return to the classroom.

Last year, South Carolina suspended the teaching certificates of 166 teachers for a period of between one month and three years, according to records published by the State Board of Education. Some of them have been suspended for unethical or even criminal behavior, written orders from the board show, but many have been suspended purely for leaving their jobs before the end of their contracts.

In South Carolina, teachers sign a one-year contract before the beginning of the school year, and school boards have the option to recommend a suspension to the state board if any teacher walks out of the classroom before the end of the year.

But teachers’ organizations say the way the law is applied now is inflexible, doesn’t take into account the reasons teachers may need to quit their jobs, and is shutting the schoolhouse door on willing teachers at a time when South Carolina school districts are having trouble filling teacher positions.

Jamie Minto knows firsthand what that feels like. When her husband got a new job, the couple moved to Marion ahead of the 2021-22 school year, where she got a job as a reading interventionist for the county school district. But then her husband’s position was eliminated shortly after their arrival. He moved back to Anderson County when he got another job there, but Minto found she couldn’t follow him because she was locked into a year-long contract with the school district.

“Even though I’m a wife and a mother of two small children, they expect that I have to stay there and live pretty much separately,” Minto said. “It’s another aspect where teachers are not always treated as professionals.”

When Minto did leave her job early in the school year, the Marion County school board referred her to the State Board of Education for a suspension. By talking to the school district, she managed to get her suspension narrowed so that it expired ahead of the next school year, in time for her to start work as a science teacher in Anderson School District 3.

In a statement to The State, the S.C. Department of Education said that many other stresses in the education field are causing teachers to walk away from the profession, whether it results in a suspension of their teaching certification or not.

“Based on the feedback we have heard from both educators and district human resources professionals, most teachers make the choice to leave the profession over burnout and lack of support in addressing student behavior,” department spokesman Jason Raven said. In response, the department has put resources into “character and resiliency education” for students to have the skills to implement “common values.”

But the possibility of losing her ability to teach and work was a source of stress for Minto, alongside her family concerns. Even though she felt like she had followed all the steps laid out by the district to get out of her contract, Minto hired an attorney in an effort to stave off a suspension, and then she had to reapply for her license over the summer when the suspension ended. That included paying a fee and going through the process of being fingerprinted again.

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