The Desert Sun

Editorial: Lack of teachers in California reaching breaking point

December 15, 2005

California is rapidly approaching a crisis in public education: A shortage of 100,000 teachers.

The nonpartisan Santa Cruz-based Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning made that projection for 2015 in the year-long study, "The Status of the Teaching Profession 2005." We can't wait until 2014 to address this problem, though. California schools will need 27,000 teachers in just two years, with the gap only widening each spring.

Valley's children endangered

There's little doubt a shortage of that magnitude would affect the Coachella Valley. If the number of needed teachers were to reach what has been projected, fully 1 in 3 classrooms would have no one standing in front of the chalkboard. The valley in particular has a great need for teachers because of growth. Both Desert Sands and Palm Springs unified school districts will open new elementary, middle and high schools during the next few years.

The teacher shortage raises several difficult questions. How do we keep the number of students in each classroom from increasing dramatically? How do we meet state testing standards and ensure students pass the required exit exam if there is a far lower teacher to pupil ratio? How do we pay for higher salaries and benefits, as those staying in teaching likely will expect and some state officials say we'll need to increase to avert the shortage?

The short answer to those questions is to avert the teaching shortage.

Problem areas

Education experts generally agree that a teacher shortage already exists in California. Several factors conspire to worsen it:

·  Attrition - About a third of California's teachers will retire within the next decade. Of the state's 306,000 public school teachers, 97,000 are older than 50.

·  Falling graduation rates - Fewer college students are entering teacher-training programs. Applications to teacher credentialing programs dropped 8 percent in 2003-04 after a 4 percent drop the year before. This doesn't cover the loss of teachers who annually retire. Meanwhile, the elementary, junior and high school student population is growing.

·  Reduced class sizes - At the start of the decade, California began reducing class sizes at lower grade levels. This created more teaching posts across the state.

Current efforts to recruit teachers largely fall short. Last spring, for example, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger launched California Teach to add 1,000 new science and math teachers a year to classrooms within five years. While an excellent idea and program that should be touted, it hardly will solve the looming shortage, leaving the state in need of 95,000 teachers.

Pay raises alone won't do it

State Schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell said a pay raise is the best way to attract great teachers. Is it? No doubt, salaries are a factor in the equation. But loading up that variable at the expense of others sounds neither like the most affordable nor the most efficient solution. Granted, we want to attract people who will make good teachers to the profession. But we don't want to attract people who won't be great teachers just for the sake of warm bodies. Those who enter the profession only for the money aren't going to make good teachers, after all.

Reversing the shortage will require addressing its root causes:

·  Incentives to delay retirement - The biggest factor is the rapid climb in retiring teachers. Pay and retirement packages could be offered so the exodus is stretched out over more years. This will cost money but may be cheaper than dramatically raising salaries for all teachers.

·  Proactive recruitment - Schools will have to start courting college students hoping to become teachers. Banta School District, for example, plans to build a training center and invite teaching colleges to open shop there. All three valley districts could do this in conjunction with new programs or facilities at the Palm Desert campus of UC Riverside or the College of the Desert. Some districts also will need collaborative efforts with out-of-state teaching programs.

·  Restore funding to past recruitment efforts - When California began reducing class sizes five years ago, lawmakers created a variety of programs to attract and retain teachers. Many since have lost funding.

Ultimately, teacher pay and benefits likely will have to be increased. But given that California teachers already enjoy the third highest pay among the 50 states, we must lessen the extent of those hikes and reduce the magnitude of the shortage by starting now, at the local and at the state level, to address this problem. Anything less is tantamount to a farmer ignoring the early signs of a long drought.

<- Back to Media Clips