Not only are teachers not paid enough, but, according to a study released Monday, fewer college students are choosing to become teachers — which is putting a fairly good-size dent in the education market in Utah.

Better mentoring and new-teacher induction programs as well as offering teachers more money ranked above smaller class sizes as the most efficient way to reduce teacher attrition in the state, according to the report.

"Class-size reduction is something that sounds like a popular idea to parents, but we really caution that now is not a great time to do that," said Steve Kroes, president of the Utah Foundation, which released the study. "If you increase the demand for teachers by reducing class sizes, it's just going to make the teacher shortage worse."

He said that smaller class sizes are still a worthwhile prospect, but not the most cost-efficient for now.

"It's better to wait until this demographic surge of new students slows down, and that may be some years to come," he said. The number of new students flooding into Utah schools is expected to recede by 2015.

Because there has been much talk recently about the quality of education for Utah's children, Kroes said policy analysts involved with the foundation believe some of the questions surrounding the teacher shortage should be answered, or at least discussed publicly. The data that resulted from those questions, he said, is most useful for people involved in local policy-making so they "can understand what's going on at the national level" and see what other states have done to combat the problem of a teacher shortage.

Findings reveal that despite increased recruitment efforts, a growing number of teachers are still leaving their careers, both statewide and nationally. The shortage puts Utah's educational system at risk in three ways, including lower teacher quality, greater inequity in student opportunities and increased inefficiency as more money is spent recruiting and training new teachers.

"Anytime there's a shortage, in order to solve the shortage you have to lower standards to get a greater supply of workers," Kroes said. He said since recent surveys show teacher quality is parents' main concern in Utah, investing in mentoring programs would be of the most value in order to retain more teachers.

"We think it's a critical time for Utah because this has been a state that has always valued education, and this is a challenge for us to try to live up to providing a quality education for our kids with a shortage of qualified teachers," he said. "It's time to stop the flow of teachers leaving the profession if we can, or slow it down some."

In addition to making mentoring programs available to teachers, providing significant, targeted pay increases for teachers in shortage subjects, those who teach at disadvantaged schools, or with skills or training that would provide higher pay in other careers would also benefit the state, the report finds. In addition to the differentiated pay scales, salary increases across the board are necessary to induce more teachers to stay in the profession and persuade more college students to enter it.

The entire report is available online at www.utahfoundation.org.

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E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com