Keeping good teachers

With the teacher shortage of recent years eased, school districts are seeing a paradigm shift on issues of supply and demand.

Now, the more pressing need is to get the good ones to stick around.

Before the economy slid into a recession, an entire nation was on alert. Schools needed more teachers.

The fiscal tide turned. People started losing jobs or couldn't find them and began falling back on teaching as a source of income.

There was no longer an alarming, widespread shortage.

"The downturn in the economy has most likely provided a return to teaching for many who worked in the technology and engineering fields," said Joan Patterson, coordinator of educator licensing for the Utah State Office of Education.

Still, the "s" word is on the tongues of administrators.

In Utah, special education and some areas of math continue to experience a "critical" shortage.

And school districts like Tooele County's, which hired 75 new teachers this year, aren't satisfied the shortage has passed.

Throughout the state, there is a call for 2,000 new teachers a year to educate 75,000 to 145,000 more schoolchildren than the current statewide head count over the next decade.

"The numbers of teachers being produced now will not be sufficient over the next 10 years," said Tooele superintendent Larry Shumway. A large contingent from the baby boom generation of teachers will need replacing. "With our population explosion, it's going to be a tremendous challenge."

But there's more at stake than just training new teachers to fill a gap.

Some say teachers' social status needs tweaking. It's a profession that on the outside, Shumway said, gets a negative review.

"People out there badmouth schools every day and by extension badmouth teachers," he said.

Then they're not paid much, they get stuck with "huge" classes, and they get blamed for society's ills.

"And then we expect 20-year-olds to want to dive into that?" Shumway asked. "That has to change."