Teacher Shortage

The education section of the NY Times reported on a teacher shortage, today. The article says that over a third of the nations teachers will retire over the next four years, because many school systems are encouraging teachers to retire while still in their mid-fifties. Now, my mother-in-law is an English teacher at a community college in the St. Louis area, and I don't have to ask her how she feels about this. She dreads retirement, and probably won't retire until she absolutely has to.

The article also says something most of us already know. Many new teachers are leaving the field within the first few years, mostly due to low pay and frustrating working conditions.

On the other hand, the Times also seems pretty confident that the teacher shortage will be reversed by the bad economy, since the teaching field offers high job security.

They also have a nice little graphic entitled "When A Million Teachers Retire." It shows a map of the US and the percentage of teachers over the age of 50 in each state. Here in Missouri, we seem to be on the low end. Our percentage of teachers over 50 is between 40 and 45%. West Virginia looks the worst. Their rate is between 60 and 65%. I question the accuracy of the map and percentage rates, however, because it doesn't say whether they included only teachers in the public schools, grades K-12, public and private schools, or public schools, private schools, daycares, and universities.

The entire article can be found here.