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Kansas educators and lawmakers push mentoring, childcare and special-education funding to stem teacher turnover
Summary
A legislative roundtable with Kansas teachers, administrators and school board members highlighted mentoring programs, unaffordable childcare, pay concerns, special-education funding and CTE transportation as primary drivers of teacher exits and possible levers to retain staff.
Lawmakers and education leaders met in a House committee roundtable and cited mentoring, childcare costs, pay, special-education funding and mental-health supports as key factors driving teachers from Kansas classrooms.
The panel included classroom teachers, principals, school-board members and state education representatives who described a mix of classroom challenges and out-of-school pressures that make retention difficult, particularly in teachers’ second and third years on the job.
“Mentoring is vital,” said Jill Johnson, a math teacher in the Shawnee Mission School District and president of NEA Shawnee Mission. “On my first three years I had an amazing mentor that taught me everything I needed to know and I could go to them, I could call them on the weekend when I had a question or I was upset or had a bad…
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