Public school teacher retirements spiked this past year, with significantly more educators leaving than in recent years.
A total of 3,570 teachers along with other K-12 education employees retired this year, up from 3,094 in 2024 and 2,810 in 2023 – surpassing the peak retirement numbers seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
State Superintendent Eric Mackey told board members recently that the increase in retirements is worrisome, particularly in districts already struggling to find and recruit new teachers.
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“We’ve actually solved the teacher shortage in many districts through a lot of great policy work, but we’ve still got a teacher shortage,” he said.
Though the recent retirement numbers might seem alarming, state retirement officials say it’s important to look at the broader trend.
“You have to look at the previous two years to put it in context,” Neah Scott, Assistant Legal Counsel at the Retirement Systems of Alabama, told Alabama Daily News. The RSA oversees retirement operations for public education and state employees.
“2023 and 2024 were below average for our normal retirements,” she said. According to RSA data, the 10-year average is 3,030 retirements and the five-year average is slightly higher at 3,135 retirements. These figures include all K-12 school employees, not just classroom teachers.
Over the past decade, the share of K-12 employees retiring each year has remained in the 3% to 4% range.
So what could explain this year’s increase?
One likely factor is that some educators delayed retirement to benefit from lawmakers’ decision to increase salary for teachers with nine or more years of experience, starting with the 2022–23 school year. Under the new pay structure, annual raises replaced the former three-year increment schedule.
“I think you had a lot of people that would have otherwise retired, but that stayed so they could get three years of the higher salary for the retirement benefit calculation,” Scott said. “That enticed them to stay additional years — which was the intent.”
Those that chose to stay are likely now retiring.
Monthly retirement benefits are calculated based on the highest three to five years of salary, depending on the employee’s original hire date.
Scott said that when including all education employees — such as those at universities and community colleges — the overall retirement spike is less pronounced.
But at the K-12 district level, 30 school districts saw the highest number of retirements in more than a decade and another 11 tying their highest number during that period of time. Still others outpaced five- and 10-year averages.
Closer look
Some of the districts seeing their highest retirements in a decade include:
- Madison County – 116 retirements,
- Hoover City – 80 retirements,
- DeKalb County – 59 retirements,
- Etowah County – 55 retirements,
- Houston County – 52 retirements, and
- Elmore County – 50 retirements
Teacher shortages aren’t new, and state officials have been trying for years to make the job more appealing. Alabama’s starting salary for teachers was $47,600 at the start of the 2023-24 school year – the highest among neighboring states at the time — but Florida has since pulled ahead.
Teachers didn’t get a raise for the 2025–26 school year, but they have seen raises in seven of the last nine years.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Trisha Powell Crain and originally published by Alabama Daily News.
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