CHARLOTTE, N.C. — More teachers leaving education is not discouraging a first-year teacher from pursuing his passion. 

Dillon Lay will teach seventh grade science at Ranson Middle School in Charlotte. 

“Science is fun, science is weird. It has so many components to it,” Lay said. 

Lay, who is from Kentucky, is making his dream of becoming a teacher a reality through Teach for America. 

“This is something I’ve been waiting on for a very long time,” Lay said. 

During his undergraduate career and master’s degree program at the University of Kentucky, he was involved in a youth tobacco prevention services program called "I can End the Trend."

“I mainly went to schools, interacting with students,” Lay said. 

This experience sparked his interest in becoming a teacher. 

Now, Lay is entering education as more teachers are leaving the field. 

According to the finding of the 2022 North Carolina Teacher Conditions Survey released earlier this summer, out of 107,380 teachers responding to the survey, 7.2% of them aren’t planning to return to the classroom this year. This is compared to 3.9% in 2020. 

Lay didn’t participate in this survey, but he commented on the results. 

“It doesn’t surprise me based on some of the statistics here,” Lay said.

Of the teachers staying in the profession, 78 percent indicated they would stay at their current school. The majority of them listed school leadership, time during the work day and managing student conduct as top reasons for their willingness to stay.

As Lay starts his teaching journey, he said school leadership and community support and involvement are important to him. 

“The community at the school: staff support, teacher support, and I can tell you right now, I’m already feeling that,” Lay said. 

As with anything new, Lay said he’s nervous but ready for the challenge. One of his top goals is helping students during their third year in the pandemic. 

“We are committed to tackling that head-on, whether that’s catching students up academically, socially and emotionally, creating a learning environment for those students to really succeed in,” Lay said. 

He anticipates he’ll be in the classroom for a long time. 

“I feel right at home. I feel this is where I’m supposed to be,” Lay said. 

According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials, they have more than 1,000 substitute teachers to tackle the teacher shortage.