After two years of weathering pandemic health concerns, learning loss, and tense public scrutiny, teacher burnout is surging nationwide.

Jennifer Zanardi just quit her high school teaching job in Palm Beach, Florida, to become a corporate recruiter. She says the relatively low salary was a big factor, but the political pressure and the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill were the tipping points. She found herself working more hours and walking on eggshells.

“The public was actually saying that teachers were trying to indoctrinate students,” Zanardi said. “It affected my mental health and my stress in a huge way.”

Enrollment in teacher preparation programs is also plummeting, down 33% between 2010 and 2020 — a trend that has only intensified during the pandemic, according to the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

Schools are competing for a shrinking pool of teachers, and wealthier suburban districts are winning out over those with fewer resources, especially rural schools and those that support more low-income families and students of color.

“(Teachers) are not going to the schools that are the most disadvantaged,” said Chad Aldeman, policy director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. “The same schools that were struggling in 2019 are struggling even worse in 2022.”

In Prince George’s County, Maryland, where there’s a high concentration of poverty, at least 8 percent of the public school district’s teacher slots are vacant, more than twice as many as last year, according to the teachers union.

Dr. Donna Christy, the president of the Prince George’s County Educators Association, is seeing a scramble to fill the gap.

“It definitely feels like there’s been an exodus,” Christy said. “They’re leaving the profession, but they are leaving for other districts as well. Where there’s higher pay, where there’s better working conditions, where they feel more supported, or they’ve heard there’s more support.”

Geva Hickman-Johnson, a high school English teacher in Prince George’s County, just found out she’ll need to prep lessons for the new substitutes in her department. She also expects her class sizes to grow.

“It means that my students may not be getting the best teacher this year,” Hickman-Johnson said. “I may not be able to be at my best because I’m being pulled in so many different directions that I’m not going to really be able to focus on the students that I’m standing in front of every day. It’s hard.”

On top of learning loss during the pandemic, many teachers across the country have also noticed worsening student behavior. At a time when many students need more attention, Christy fears they’ll receive less.

“They were falling through the cracks before,” she said. “It’s going to be like opening the floodgates. It’s going to be really hard to keep up with our struggling students.”

Like many districts, Prince George’s County Public Schools are now scrambling to fill those empty classrooms, shifting staff around, increasing pay for subs, and combining classes when necessary.

States are getting creative to fill vacancies, though some of the plans are controversial. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking veterans wi