Not enough educators may be available to meet the growing need for teachers across New Hampshire schools, according to a report released Tuesday by the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute.
Across the state, K-12 schools will have to recruit 1,114 teaching positions per year between 2024 and 2034, projections suggest. Teachers retiring or transferring to other occupations account for almost all the expected openings, rather than employment growth.
Between July 2018 and July 2026, job postings for teaching positions across public and private schools increased by 82%. Over the last decade, public school teacher staffing declined by 5.7%.
Although student enrollment is decreasing across the Granite State, which may reduce the number of teachers schools need, there is still a need to replace departing teachers.
The policy institute analyzed data across state and national agencies to understand how lower pay, an older workforce and fewer students pursuing teaching degrees will collectively impact teacher recruitment and retention going forward. Ben Reynolds, a senior policy analyst who worked on the report, said the number of teacher openings surprised him.
The elementary school level had the most projected annual openings at 408, followed by secondary school at 378 and middle school at 267. The kindergarten level had the lowest number of openings at 61 per year.
“I actually wasn’t expecting to see an increase for some of these, I was kind of expecting how it looked with kindergarten where there’d just be 61 openings,” Reynolds said. “Seeing that they were expecting so many for these other positions, for elementary and middle and secondary school teachers, it’s definitely really interesting.”
About 47% of teacher openings are expected to result from teachers retiring. Workers 55 years and older held over a third of elementary and secondary school jobs in 2025, compared to 22% in 2004.
Another 48% of the openings are expected to result from teachers transferring to other professions. A major reason for leaving the profession is pay, the study states.
New Hampshire’s starting salary for teachers was ranked 42nd across the country for the 2024-2025 school year, ranking below Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts.
That school year, New Hampshire’s starting teacher salary was about $44,010 while its average teacher salary was $69,432. The average salary ranked 25th compared to states across the country.
Teachers also earn about a third less than other New Hampshire workers with similar educational degrees and experience, according to the institute.
“Teachers are making about 33% less than those similar occupations and that’s even accounting for weeks worked.” Reynolds said. “Obviously, understanding that a lot of times teachers have summers off, so even accounting for that. And so, pay is one of the aspects that’s going to be a continuing discussion for communities.”
The report also highlighted the pay difference among New Hampshire school districts. New Castle, Rye and Lyme had among the highest minimum starting salaries, between $57,134 and $59,396, while Bath, Warren and Pittsfield had the lowest, between $36,148 and $37,113.
Districts very close to each other can also have very different starting salaries, such as Franklin School District, at $39,990, and the neighboring Winnisquam Regional School District, at $51,830.
As teachers switch professions and retire, data also shows the pool of educators may be decreasing. Fewer students in-state are studying education. Between 2015 and 2025, education bachelor’s degree completions at New Hampshire institutions dropped by half.
Teachers are also required to receive endorsements that show they are qualified to teach a specific subject or grade level. Chemistry, physics, algebra and advanced-placement math were among the subjects that had a shortage of endorsements, according to the New Hampshire Department of Education’s March 2025 list.
“It doesn’t mean that those (subjects) aren’t being taught in schools,” Reynolds said. “It just means that there’s teachers who haven’t necessarily been endorsed in them, and so maybe they don’t have as much experience teaching those than if they had teachers that were endorsed in that. And so it’s really causing teachers to have to go into something they don’t know, really learning on the fly.”
Reynolds said there were factors not included in the report, like the range of activities in a town for a young teacher and a school’s work environment, that also contribute to the district’s ability to recruit teachers.
He said communities should understand that while attracting teachers is important, it is also necessary to retain teachers and build an experienced workforce.
“We see the benefits for having experienced teachers on both students, but also for newer teachers, and how much improvement newer teachers have when they have staff members who are more experienced,” Reynolds said.
