LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – As the 2024-25 teacher of the year in Michigan, Kelley Cusmano becomes a spokeswoman for education as the honor bestows on each year’s winner.

The Rochester Community Schools teacher chose to promote a talking point in a June 16 guest commentary with Bridge news site. In her post, Cusmano talked about how teachers are leaving the profession or not even considering it anymore because of the negativity of the profession.

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It’s a storyline not supported by the state of Michigan’s data that shows there are more full-time positions devoted to public school teachers than there were in 2009-10.

Cusmano wrote: “Yet despite my positivity, a simple reality haunts me: More and more teachers are leaving the field or never entering it at all. … Teacher retention is not the same everywhere. Educators feel more overwhelmed in schools with high levels of poverty and low levels of family engagement and in rural areas with less access to funding or resources. However, no place is immune from this crisis. The state has acted to attract more new teachers. Now we must take steps to improve retention.”

There were 100,949 full-time teaching positions in Michigan in 2024-25. That’s the most since 2009-10 when there were 103,962 full-time teaching positions. Yet, Michigan’s K-12 enrollment has fallen from 1.61 million in 2009-10 to 1.42 million in 2024-25.

Even Cusmano’s own district has been able to maintain similar numbers of teachers since she first joined the district in 2008-09. Rochester Community Schools is one of the rarer districts that has seen an slight increase in enrollment over the last 16 years. Rochester Community Schools had 906 full-time teaching positions with 14,864 students in 2008-09. In 2024-25, the district had 912 full-time teachers With 14,906 students.