Utah school districts face teacher shortage

A special task force of Utah's K-16 Alliance of higher and public education leaders, the Utah Foundation and the State Board of Education all are, in part, looking for more pay for teachers.

Utah's starting teacher salary ranked seventh among eight Western states and 45th in the nation in 2004-05, the Utah Foundation reported.

Other states increasingly lure Utah teachers with better pay and signing bonuses. In Nevada and Wyoming, for instance, 60 percent of teachers were trained out of state, the Utah Foundation reports.

In Utah, on the other hand, 85 percent of the 27,000 working teachers hail from Utah.

The state school board, K-16 Alliance and Utah Foundation suggest differential pay for teachers in high demand, including math and science and special education specialists. The state school board last year unsuccessfully lobbied Utah legislators for $50 million as part of those efforts. Lawmakers came through otherwise, however, with a $1,000 bonus and $2,500 raise for every Utah teacher. While calculation errors have decreased that amount by a few hundred bucks, lawmakers pledge they'll fill in the holes in the 2008 legislative session.

Meanwhile, the raise has bumped Granite District's beginning teacher pay to around $30,000, and advanced teachers can make $55,000 to $60,000 a year, Fraser said.

"I never thought I'd see the day," he said. "If the Legislature will stay on this track, I think maybe we can start turning this teacher shortage around."

But until it does, districts will continue recruiting. Tooele School District leaders this year have hit a half dozen states on the recruiting trail, including Michigan, which has a teacher surplus, Christensen said.

Jordan hits states including Illinois, Michigan, Oregon, Washington, Montana, plus all of Utah's job fairs. It even hosts some fairs of its own. The main selling point: Utah's all-season recreation, all-around good folks, and nearby colleges for close-to-home professional development, Colton said.

They'll also continue mentoring programs where veteran teachers earn a stipend to help beginning teachers through those tough first years — an effort initial research indicates may have improved teacher retention by about 20 percent since its 2003 implementation, the Utah Foundation reports.

They'll also hold out hope.

"Our goal is to have a certificated teacher in every classroom," Jordan's Colton said. "We just worry about one teacher at a time."

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