Nearly half of California teachers plan to quit or retire within 10 years

Nearly half of California teachers plan to retire or quit in the next 10 years, according to a new survey. 

In California, the share of teachers who say they plan to retire in the next 10 years is between 40% and 49% with an estimate of 45%, Holly Kurtz, director of the Education Week Research Center, told Fox News Digital. Kurtz added that state teachers are on average older than teachers in many other states, according to the most recent federal data that is available. The average age of a California teacher is 45.5, while the average teacher age in the U.S. is 42.9. 

“This means that age likely is a major reason why CA teachers are more likely to say they plan to retire in the next decade than teachers in other states,” Kurtz told Fox News Digital. 

Nationwide, 36% of teachers say they plan to retire in the next ten years. “There’s a lot of evidence that indicates that teacher morale has been declining nationwide and is at, by some measures, the lowest point in recent memory,” Kurtz explained to EdSource. 

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The report also found that nearly half of all U.S. teachers say they expect at some point to work in a field other than education. A total of 5,802 public school teachers working in K-12 education responded to the survey for EdWeek’s 2026 installment of its State of Teaching Report, totaling 9,892 teachers after three years.

The California Department of Education did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

California teachers have slightly better morale on average than their peers in other states, but more are planning to leave the profession in the next decade, according to Education Week’s annual The State of Teaching report,” EdSource reported.

Fox News Digital previously reported on school districts grappling with the teacher shortage, detailing that retaining and recruiting teachers is a nationwide issue. The largest teachers union in the country, the National Education Association, said that “the educator shortage crisis is real” on its website providing information about challenges the education industry faces in retaining and recruiting teachers. 

The California Teachers Association released a report in January finding that even though a majority of teachers are satisfied with their job, 40% are considering leaving education and 45% cite financial issues in deciding what to do.

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The union’s survey added that 54 percent of educators “know coworkers who left careers in education because of financial strain.”

“Educators are actively organizing to increase and defend school funding across the state, ensuring school districts prioritize spending on student learning conditions, and working toward a permanent extension of Prop. 55 and the up to $15 billion dollars it generates for our schools annually,” the CTA said in the report.

San Francisco teachers went on strike demanding higher pay in February—the first strike of San Francisco educators since 1979. 

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The United Educators of San Francisco eventually reached a tentative agreement with the city’s school district, ending a four-day strike.