Too few minority teachers

OGDEN — It took veteran black educator Dovie Goodwin three years to get a job teaching at Pingree Elementary School in the late 1950s. Back then, her race kept her out of the mostly white classrooms of Ogden School District.

Today, the state's classrooms are struggling to keep pace with increasing diversity, and schools can't hire minority teachers fast enough.

Fifty years after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation in the public schools, Utah is facing a teacher shortage, which experts say is especially pronounced among minorities.

While 17 percent of the state's public school students are minorities, only about 8 percent of the state's teachers and administrators are not white, according to the State Office of Education.

Richard Gomez, educational equity coordinator at the state office, said over the next five to 10 years, it's projected the proportion of teachers and administrators of color will shrink to 5 percent. Meanwhile, the minority student population is projected to grow to 20 percent by 2010, he said, and one in five minority students could be an English language learner.

Gomez said teachers of all races are aging, and there's a shortage, especially among minorities, of new teachers to replace those who retire.

Race aside, Utah is projected to have a shortage of 1,175 teachers yearly over the next 20 years, according to a recent Utah Sate University study.

"They (prospective teachers of color) are aware it doesn't pay very well," Gomez said. "Part of the issue is to break out of poverty. When you're an ethnic minority, you may be the first or second generation here. Your family is trying to get you educated and into . . . a higher profile situation such as attorney, engineer or doctor.

"We as ethnic minorities need to start encouraging more young people at an early age to consider going into teaching," Gomez said. "It's a critical need."

Currently, the school districts with the greatest racial diversity in the state are San Juan, Salt Lake, Ogden, Granite and Provo — all with at least 26 percent minority students.

Betty Sawyer, president of the Ogden NAACP, said increasing poverty, racial diversity and an influx of students who don't speak English as their first language is creating new challenges for the state's education system.