Jon Portie was on the path to law school when his summer work as a counselor at the Heritage School steered him instead toward a high school classroom.

Portie had always thought about becoming a teacher, and when the Provo school advertised an opening for a high school geography teacher, Portie decided to follow that dream.

One obstacle stood in his way — a state teaching license.

A new program at Utah State University, however, was able to put that license in Portie's hand and put Portie into a classroom immediately. The alternative route to teacher licensure program got Portie enrolled in pedagogy classes in January and allowed him to start work as a teacher while earning his master's degree.

"Every day I go to work and I love it," he said. "Law school is a more prestigious route, but I'm enjoying what I'm doing and I'm sticking with it."

That alternative route to becoming a teacher is part of a new program at USU to attract more professionals into the classroom, bringing real-world experience in tow.

Recruiting those teachers is one way education leaders are working to fill the gap as Utah's aging teacher work force retires and the student population continues to grow. According to national estimates, nearly one-third of public school teachers are 55 or older. At the same time, Utah education officials estimate public schools could see a 30 percent increase in the number of students by 2016.

That scenario has caught the eye of leaders at the Utah System of Higher Education, who have started a push to recruit more teachers into Utah's classrooms. David Sperry, former dean of the college of education at the University of Utah, is spearheading the system's efforts to get more university students interested in teaching.

"What we want to try to do is avert a serious shortage of K-12 educators in Utah. We don't want to end up like nursing and other fields with massive personnel shortages," Sperry said.

To get more teachers into education training programs at colleges throughout the state, Sperry is focusing on several factors including pay, retention and recruiting in key areas like math and science.

An infamous deterrent for teachers, salary levels may need to be adjusted to get more college students considering education as a career, Sperry said. With engineering and business wages surging, Sperry said education will have to compete for talent.

"This is a shortage nationwide, and a number of math teachers graduated out of the U. have simply been recruited to other states where they are paid more handsomely," he said.

While Sperry said teacher salaries will likely not jump dramatically anytime soon, Utah colleges could do a better job of combating the low pay with vamped-up recruitment campaigns. Better counseling to guide students toward teaching could be the first step, he said.