"You have to be that type of teacher now," Burton Jr. told ABC News, adding,"It's never a dull moment. I don't know of a teacher that's not tired when they leave from just the daily work -- the daily grind."
"I really feel like we're skipped over -- point-blank, period," Burton Jr. said."The way that the [education] system is laid out, I am always looked to as a disciplinarian, as the one that has the classroom management skills, as the one that is, you know, kind of firm footed," he added. Bristol pointed to what some researchers have called the"cradle to carceral" pipeline -- from birth to prison or government-backed punishment -- as one of the main hurdles for Black boys who could become teachers, because Black children have been disproportionately suspended and expelled since preschool, according to the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, with boys receiving more than 75% of out-of-school suspensions.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has announced several strategies to aid in the shortage by supporting teachers with $285-plus million in grant competitions this fiscal year. "The impact of Brown v. Board is multi-tiered," El-Mekki explained."The interpretation of Brown v. Board was even more damaging. The idea that it promoted -- that in order for a Black child to have excellence, it had to be in proximity of whiteness -- automatically erases a Black educator."
"None of this is laid at the feet of the Brown decision," Fenwick said, adding that"white resistance to the Brown decision interrupted the Black male teacher pipeline." Teaching, though, has been widely viewed as a caretaking profession with unfair compensation, advocates told ABC News. In fact, the Economic Policy Institute , which lobbies on behalf of the needs of low- and middle-income workers, found the relative pay gap between teachers and similarly educated non-teachers hit a"record" high in 2021.
The study found one of the biggest challenges has been retaining the Black men teachers who are surrounded by others because they are typically placed at schools that face greater difficulties and there are fewer chances to succeed.