A majority of Charleston County teachers surveyed say they don’t feel valued by the school district, evidence of a serious morale problem among those on the front lines of education.<\/p>\n
The Charleston Teacher Alliance, a teacher advocacy group, asked its roughly 1,000 members to answer questions related to the start of this school year, and 845 responded. About 3,500 teachers work for the district.<\/p>\n
The new survey revealed that 60 percent of teachers who responded don’t feel valued by the school district while 76 percent think the district views them as expendable. The alliance represents a large group of teachers, but district leaders don’t respond to their requests or seem to hear their feedback, said Kent Riddle, chairman of the alliance and a kindergarten teacher at Angel Oak Elementary.<\/p>\n
“They need to start listening to teachers,” he said. “It feels like we’re being ignored.<\/p>\n