To the Editor:
In the post from the opinion blog Finding Common Ground, “How Educators Can Escape Toxic Productivity,” (May 27, 2025), the authors continue the modern trend of blaming the teacher for burnout. However, the teacher is not the problem.
The problem is simply that too much is being required of teachers for the amount of pay and time they have. Every year, or every other year, teachers are given new requirements, additional work, more to do—but no previous responsibility is ever taken away! This is the problem!
My solution is very simple: Apply the zero-based budgeting principle every few years to teacher time and responsibilities. Every five years, let’s say, the principal and every other staff member at the school identify tasks and time spent performing them.
If principals and teachers conclude that there were or will be too many responsibilities for an educator to perform within their paid hours the next school year, one of two outcomes should occur. Either certain tasks are eliminated or the school district will provide additional staff or extend the paid time for current staff to complete all tasks. If the district does not provide the school with the necessary resources, the school simply does not do them—regardless of any federal, state, or district mandate. Period. Until that happens, this problem will continue.
We need school leaders to push back against burdensome district mandates on behalf of their educators’ well-being. In a letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson wrote that “a little rebellion now and then is a good thing.” That’s what we need now to reduce the burnout, to reduce the number of teachers leaving the profession, and to reduce toxic productivity.
Michael McCabe
High School Teacher
Sterling, Va.
