Teacher exodus costing Utah taxpayers a bundle

Did we really need a 156-page report to tell us we will be facing a teacher shortage? Besides, who cares? At least the legislative committee that was briefed on the study didn't seem too concerned.

The "Utah Educator Supply and Demand Study," commissioned by the Utah State Office of Education (USOE) and the State Board of Regents, was to determine what to do about meeting the demand for more teachers needed to educate the 49 percent student growth over the next 20 years. The study recommended Utah's higher education institutions will have to do two things: increase enrollment and place more of their students in the state school districts.

And the USOE needs to help educators who left to have families return to the profession. All this does is assure full employment for college professors and state administrators.

No one seemed to notice the most important finding: that 40 percent of those who graduate from Utah teacher colleges never enter the profession and that another 40 percent leave the profession after five years. What is clear is that the state doesn't have a supply problem. It has a hemorrhaging problem.

Many don't want to enter the profession, and those who do want to leave it as soon as they can. Talk about a waste of tax dollars.

Besides, the study also found that one-half of the teachers trained come from a privately funded institution, Brigham Young University. So the question becomes, why should the Legislature spend more tax dollars in public higher education to train teachers when 40 percent never teach and those remaining are leaving at a rapid rate. Of the current number of teachers leaving this year (approximately 2,777), 24 percent are leaving to retire, which raises a critical question: Why is the other 76 percent leaving? I suspect teachers on exit interviews give courtesy answers similar to what politicians say when they leave — to spend more time with their family.

The truth is that many are leaving because of the oppressive and stressful working conditions now prevalent in today's schools. The state says, because of budget cuts, districts are increasing class sizes to use the same number of teachers. Researchers claim that will work in the "short run." That's OK, unless it's your student now sitting in overcrowded classrooms.