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(Prairie News Service) Eighty-eight percent of North Dakota teachers feel that school districts will have a harder time keeping enough staff next school year, according to a new poll issued this month. 

The survey is from the statewide union North Dakota United. It says the results show teacher retention is a bigger threat to the profession when compared with its other recent polls on the topic. 

Monica Klein, a teacher at Fort Lincoln Elementary School in Mandan, said she sees too much burnout among colleagues around the state. She said many teachers, and the parents of their students, are overwhelmed with such concerns as tight household budgets and child-care access, and those stressors are spilling over. 

"So just lots of those issues that I noticed," said Klein, "that are affecting inside of my classroom are coming from outside of my classroom."

Klein - also the president of the Mandan Education Association - said while the Legislature did approve new child-care investments this past year, she would like to see more support. 

She also called for a more robust system for bringing new educators into the pipeline. 

The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction points to state-level efforts, such as new teacher and principal apprenticeship programs as part of the solution. 

Klein said she feels the state shouldn't lose sight of giving incoming educators a boost, noting added support might not have them thinking about switching professions. 

"Not only learning how to teach the curriculum, not only learning how to implement the strategies, not only learning how to be a teacher, but experiencing it," said Klein, "because I can tell you that in the first five years of my career, I learned so much. And it wasn't things that I learned in my college education."

According to the poll, 19 percent of educators younger than age 30, and 24 percent between ages 30 and 39, say they plan to retire as teachers. 

Survey authors say that represents a sharp contrast to the outlook young respondents have when first entering the profession.