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 was surprising to 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.”
ConVal School District Superintendent Ann Forrest said the district has seen this firsthand.
“It’s always been hard to fill positions like chemistry teacher at the high school or science and math,” Forrest said. “What we’re seeing is all of our positions are becoming hard to fill. An admin assistant has been hard to fill. Paraprofessional positions have been hard to fill, elementary classroom teachers.”
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.
When Forrest started working in the district’s elementary schools over 15 years ago, she remembers smaller schools like Temple or Dublin were staffed fully by veteran teachers.
“I can only think of two teachers that were there when I was there that are still here. Everybody else has retired,” she said.
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.
In the Ledger-Transcript’s coverage area, Mascenic Regional District had the lowest minimum starting salary at $45,100, and ConVal District had the highest at $51,000. Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative District and Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative District landed in the middle with a $1,300 difference.
| School District | Minimum Teacher Salary |
| ConVal | $51,000 |
| Mascenic Regional | $45,100 |
| Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative | $49,300 |
| Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative | $48,000 |
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.
Affordable housing can be a big factor, according to Forrest. While the ConVal district has seen stability among its teachers, turnover has increased among younger educators because teachers can no longer afford a mortgage.
“If you lived in this area and bought a house 20 years ago or 30 years ago, when teachers could buy houses based on their salary,” she said.
Even in Forrest’s neighborhood in Peterborough, she recognizes that young teachers would never be able to afford the homes former educators had the opportunity to buy.
“I look at all these houses now and think, a new teacher wouldn’t be able to buy this house,” she said. “Not if they were only relying on their salary.”
Now, young teachers live with roommates or commute an hour to Peterborough. Forrest noted that rising gas prices haven’t helped.
Forrest said she could think of several teachers who take on an additional job during the summer or after school.
“When I was a first grade teacher, by the end of the day, you’re done,” she said. “It was exhausting.”
Forrest also said they have lost promising candidates because of the lack of affordable childcare options.
ConVal does attempt to stand apart from neighboring districts with its starting salary and additional benefits, according to Forrest. These include student loan payment assistance, five days for professional development, buyback health insurance, benefits for teachers filling critical shortage subjects like math, four credits for graduate courses and paid per diem rate for curriculum work.
Reynolds 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.
