Teacher retention funding bill seeks to keep educators in classrooms

A 2024 survey of K-12 teachers found they have higher levels of burnout compared to other working adults.

In Minnesota, about a third of teachers leave the profession within the first five years.

“I can remember professors telling our class that 30-50% of us would not reach that five-year mark. That was 30 years ago,” Rep. Josiah Hill (DFL-Stillwater) said.

A 2025 law provides $26 million this biennium “to support the development and implementation of the MTSS framework and the Collaborative Minnesota Partnerships to Advance Student Success (COMPASS) school improvement model.”

Sponsored by Hill, HF3930 would allocate $2 million more in Fiscal Year 2027 “to expand capacity at the Department of Education and the Minnesota service cooperatives for sustainable systems that strengthen teacher retention, workplace satisfaction, and educator well-being.”

This would be done by contracting with an entity to look at things like why burnout happens and how to raise educator voices in decision-making and resource allocation.

“Retention of those who get started in teaching is what this bill is all about,” Hill said.

The House Education Finance Committee laid the bill over Thursday for possible omnibus bill inclusion.

While the reasons teachers leave are diverse, many stem from the difficulty of working in schools rather than issues of low pay.

“Our members told us loud and clear that it was lack of workplace support, no supports for student mental health and demanding workloads that were leading them to leaving the profession,” said Justin Killian, education issues specialist at Education Minnesota.

To retain teachers, schools should be focusing on the workplace factors of schools, like communication with administration and getting educators involved in decision making, said Nathan Eklund, founder and CEO of Vital Network.

Rep. Duane Quam (R-Byron) believes the focus should be on schools that are succeeding.

“There are some school districts that actually teachers are moving to after they’ve been teaching for a while, and frankly, we should start focusing on [them].”