For a 2025 report on teacher morale, national education news outlet Education Week surveyed what it says was a representative sample of educators in nearly every state and found that the majority of teachers nationwide had positive views about their jobs. That wasn’t true in Oregon, where teacher morale was lower than in any state except New Hampshire, the survey results showed.
Only 2% of Oregon teachers told Education Week that a pay raise would improve their job satisfaction. Instead, they said they wanted more adults to help support student needs, more time for lesson planning, fewer staff meetings and more administrative support to deal with student behavior issues.
This isn’t about pay. It’s about teachers feeling utterly unsupported by the Oregon legislature, the Oregon Department of Education, and typically their own school district and administration. Unless that changes, they’re going to keep being absent at a higher rate than before.