The teacher shortage in the U.S. and Canada isn’t due to an aging workforce focused on retirement. It isn’t from major layoffs.
They are quitting.
Low pay, burnout, lack of support, political games and the requirement to be more than an educator are driving teachers away from their profession, but they aren’t leaving the workforce. Many of those teachers are leaving the profession to find successful second careers as Kumon instructors.
That was the case for Pamela Kozak, who had been a teacher for 13 years in Massachusetts. But the longer she was a teacher, the more often she was asked to be more than a teacher. Her profession was requiring her to be a fundraiser, counselor, mediator and enforcement officer.
She wasn’t trained in those roles, and she didn’t receive any extra pay to compensate for the increased demand for skills in those areas.
“It seemed like much of my energy was being spent on a few students and families, while many others were not getting much of my attention at all,” she said. “I was also frustrated by the fact that it really didn’t matter how hard you worked, every teacher – good, bad or otherwise – was on a pre-determined pay scale, according to their level of education and years of experience. I found myself increasingly annoyed by co-workers arriving just before the bell and/or leaving just after the bell without a bag in their hand. Their lesson plans hadn’t changed in years, and their commitment to delivering an exemplary program was no longer evident.”
In short, she was frustrated and decided to take a few years off to spend time with her children. But that frustration became her motivation to find something better. When she returned to Canada six years later, she became the instructor – or franchise owner – at Kumon of Guelph South in Ontario.
Kumon is the top education franchise in North America, with over 2,000 Kumon Centers in the U.S. and Canada. The education enrichment industry is worth $23.4 billion in the U.S., and business is booming at Kumon locations throughout the country. It’s also attracting former teachers who are tired of unappreciative environments but aren’t ready to stop being educators.
“Kumon is a natural and nearly seamless transition for the teachers who join us,” said John Collins, Kumon’s vice president of center network development. “We value teachers and the skills they bring with them in the classroom. The great thing about becoming an instructor is that they still get to have the love of educating children while controlling their own professional destiny as a small business owner.”
For some, the frustrations of the teaching profession aren’t worth the effort anymore.
New research by McKinsey & Co. shows nearly a third of U.S. teachers, from kindergarten to 12th grade, are thinking about leaving their jobs. That equals about 900,000 teachers across the U.S.
While there was no one factor cited in the study why teachers are thinking about leaving, there are areas of overlap, which include compensation, unreasonable expectations and an inability to protect their well-being, the study showed.
That held true for Kozak long before the frustrations within the profession compounded with the pandemic. It also made her search for a new opportunity, which led her to Kumon.
“While still living in Massachusetts, but knowing I would be returning to Ontario, I began to think about what I was going to do once I returned home,” she said. “I looked into private tutoring options and joining other franchises as an employee. When my research led me to discover Kumon, my interest was sparked. I liked the fact that the initial investment was not outrageous. When reading about the company and its philosophy, I was even more interested.”
But she wasn’t sold right away. She wanted to try it out first and enrolled her youngest daughter in the program before they moved to Canada. Kozak wanted to see it from the parents’ perspective.
“After about 6 months, I was convinced that this was a program worthy of investing both my money and my academic experience,” she said.
Former teachers are perfect candidates to become Kumon instructors.
With degrees usually related to their expertise in instruction, they meet the educational requirements to become an instructor, Collins said.
Additionally, teachers are already used to creating lesson plans, creating a welcoming and conducive learning environment, conducting parent conferences and forming individualized learning plans for each student. To get them started, Kumon also provides incentives to cover a lot of the costs of starting a business from the ground up.
“Teachers coming into Kumon already have a significant advantage to running a successful center,” Collins added. “When it comes to the business management side of the business, we have them covered with our comprehensive training. We can give them all the tools to sharpen their business acumen.”
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
