1/7/2008

By CHRIS GREEN

Harris News Service

TOPEKA -- Lawmakers don't need to look too hard for examples of the crunch that the state's growing teacher shortage is putting on school districts.

Garden City school officials hired candidates from 21 different states to fill vacant teaching positions within their district this school year.

The Stanton County school district, nestled in the state's southwest corner, filled some vacancies on its staff of about three-dozen teachers with four hires from Spain, Superintendent Susan Scherling said.

With retirements and turnover stressing districts across the country, school officials in many Kansas school districts, particularly in rural areas, say they must work harder than ever to put full-time, qualified teachers into their classrooms.

At the end of June, school districts had what was likely a record number of vacancies, education officials said, with 1,144 openings out of about 37,000 positions. That was about twice as many as the state had in 2006.

The problem is expected to grow as more veteran teachers from the baby boom generation retire. The state's colleges and universities aren't churning out enough graduates to fill the openings.

So far, though, many school districts have found ways to weather the storm, including reaching well outside the state for teachers.

Darren Dennis, personnel director at Garden City School District, said his district's situation has steadily improved over the year. Officials in the district, which has more than 7,000 students, hired enough full-time teachers to whittle down its number of long-term substitutes from 18 to the single digits.

"In general, I'm not making excuses," Dennis said of addressing the shortage. "We have a job to do and we'll get it done. It just may become a little more challenging to get it done."

School officials aren't the only ones closely watching the situation. Lawmakers have said they plan to tackle the issue after they convene Jan. 14 for the 2008 session.

"Myself, I think we need to address it right away," said Rep. Eber Phelps, D-Hays, a member of the House Education Committee. "Otherwise, we'll be in a reactionary mode and then we'll really be in trouble."

No obvious answer

However, although several proposals aimed at addressing the shortage have surfaced recently, Phelps and other key legislators doubt they'll find a magic bullet this year.

"I don't see an obvious answer right now," said Rep. Clay Aurand, R-Courtland, who serves as the chairman of the House Education Committee.

A special panel studying educational issues -- the 2010 Commission -- has made several recommendations to lawmakers, including increasing school funding by an additional $26 million to help boost teacher salaries.

Other proposals include boosting aid for professional development and mentoring programs to retain new teachers; funding leadership academies for administrators, and providing bonuses to math, science and special education teachers who delay retirement.

Other ideas include requiring less training for qualified teachers from other states to become certified in Kansas, awarding more scholarships to students who commit to teaching in Kansas and scrapping a penalty for districts who rehire retired teachers.

However, Aurand said lawmakers are limited in what they can do.

Commitments, including the final year of three-year, $500 million plan to boost public school funding and an effort to address delayed building repairs at state universities, likely will leave lawmakers with little money for new spending.

"It all requires money and there are certainly a lot of people and programs who want money and funding increases," said Sen. Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita, who leads her chamber's Education Committee.

Aurand said the problem is complicated enough that he's unsure exactly how much power the Legislature has to address it.

He said the state Board of Education, which oversees teacher licensing, and the state Board of Regents, which oversees the universities training teachers, also have roles to play in confronting the shortage.

School districts also have local control in determining what they pay their teachers, although they must do it out of a pot of money largely allotted by the Legislature.

Schodorf also said many of the solutions being offered appeared to be only temporary solutions to the teacher shortage.

In the end, state officials need to come up with new programs that would bring additional people into the profession, she said.

"I think we need to bring back that pride in teaching," Schodorf said. "I'm not saying that teachers right now don't have pride but that teaching is a noble profession. Hopefully, colleges and the Legislature can begin bringing that perception back. We won't solve the problem this year, but we can begin."

Combination of factors

Education officials say the teacher shortage results from a combination of factors, including economics and demographics, as well as geography.

Deputy Education Commissioner Dale Dennis said the state has 75,000 teachers who are certified or have been in the past. But only about half of those are employed in the profession, he said, and some have left in search of less stressful or higher-paying jobs.

Kansas ranks 38th in the nation for teacher salaries. Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for Kansas Association of School Boards, said that because teacher salaries in Kansas haven't gained significantly over time, schools struggle to compete with private industry and districts outside the state.

At the same time, schools face the prospect of losing a large number of experienced teachers as the baby boom generation begins to retire, and the state's universities are struggling to produce enough graduates to replace them.

The problem is particularly acute when it comes to the most highly sought after teachers in mathematics, science and special education.

Dennis said that as many as 307 science and 375 math teachers could leave or retire at the end of this school year. However, state institutions are projecting to graduate only 115 potential math and 63 potential science teachers.

Some schools could convince some potential retirees to stay on or have staff members receive an endorsement to teach those subjects. However, Dennis said school officials could still face the prospect of having more than 300 difficult-to-fill science and math jobs open later this year.

Rural districts, particularly smaller ones in western Kansas, face additional problems in solving the shortage.

Scherling, whose district office sits at least 75 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart store, said that her district's remote location makes it much more difficult to recruit teachers.

"Obviously, the Legislature can't do anything about geography," said Scherling, whose district has about 460 students.

However, lawmakers could make changes to help smaller districts provide better salaries and health benefits for their employees, which could help them overcome some of their disadvantages.

"That's a big thing for not only us but everybody," Scherling said. "However, those things all go back to money and the school-finance formula."

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