Utah is facing a serious teacher shortage in the near future

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At this time of the year, education is a hot topic. State lawmakers from both parties have outlined their proposals for funding education, as has the governor. One local TV news station has even done an in-depth segment on the legislative session called "Turning Point 2007: Education in Utah."

While lawmakers discuss and debate funding issues this session, another education issue looms on the horizon -- one that could potentially overshadow future legislative sessions.

Utah is on the cusp of a teacher shortage. According to a 2005-06 supply and demand study presented to the Utah Board of Regents, 17 of Utah's 40 school districts started the 2006-07 school year without a full contingency of teachers. The need for more public-school teachers is an issue nationwide, but some factors unique to Utah may cause the shortage to be even more painful here.

Much has been made about teacher salaries, and while that's an important issue, it's not the focus of this piece. Likewise, the teaching profession has experienced a high attrition rate historically, especially among teachers in their first five years on the job. While both of these are contributing factors to a decline in the number of teachers, these challenges are not necessarily unique to Utah.

So removing these two universal issues, what are the factors that may compound Utah's teacher shortage?

To begin with, Utah faces steep growth in the home-grown school-age population over the next 10 years. Part of this is attributed to "echo echo" boomers -- the grandchildren of the baby boom generation. Echo boomers -- the children of baby boomers -- make up 27.5 percent of the U.S. population, and their children (the echo echoes) are just entering the public-school system in large numbers.

If past state population trends hold true, Utah, with its penchant for larger families, will experience a larger and longer surge in echo echo boomers than other states.

Adding to this homegrown influx, a recent report by the Bureau of Economic & Business Research found that Utah has experienced tremendous in-migration, with notable increases in laborers and non-English-speaking populations. Of the 14,330 new students added to Utah's 2006 school population, 7,199 were white students and 7,131 were minority students. To put in perspective last year's increase of more than 14,000 new students entering the public school systems statewide, that number is comparable to the existing enrollment of Ogden City School District. State officials had anticipated these population increases, but increased in-migration has led to the impact being felt even sooner than expected.

While student enrollment is increasing, some school districts are experiencing a premature decline in the number of teachers due to early retirement. Changes in employee benefits, particularly medical benefits, prompted teachers in some districts to take early retirement in order to lock in preferred health-care benefits. The result was an unintended reduction in the teacher work force in some districts. Some of these early retirees have been rehired in temporary teaching positions, but the net loss still is being assessed.

The early-retirement phenomenon may simply be a precursor. Of the existing teacher work force, 46.5 percent will be eligible for retirement in the next 10 years. This could increase the anticipated teacher shortage especially if the number of new teachers doesn't keep pace with the rate of retirement.

Here's where competitive teacher salaries become a major factor. Local and state lawmakers are already attempting to address this looming problem. In my role as dean of Weber State University's Jerry & Vickie Moyes College of Education, I am serving on state and local committees that are grappling with solutions to this potential crisis. Closer to home, WSU is meeting with officials from school districts in Northern Utah to assess the situation and develop strategies to recruit more teachers to meet the growing demand.

Access to a quality public-school education has long been the foundation for personal achievement and success in this nation. In a similar vein, Utahns take great pride in our students scoring well on national standardized tests in comparison to students in other states. We also boast solid graduation rates that help attract potential employers to the state.

In order to maintain these outcomes for the next generation of Utah school children, we need to ensure our school districts can attract and retain a new generation of teachers.

Rasmussen is dean of the Jerry & Vickie Moyes College of Education at Weber State University.

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