Teachers Leaving Kansas Or Quitting The Profession Jumps Dramatically

http://kcur.org/post/teachers-leaving-ka...y#stream/0

Quote:The report shows that 1,075 teachers left the profession last year, up from 669 four years ago. That's a 61 percent increase.

The number of teachers who are retiring has also been steadily increasing over the last four years. In 2012, 2,084 teachers retired. Last year that jumped to 2,693. Still that's a 22 percent hike.

McNiece told the board about a conversation he had with the chair of the Nebraska State Board of Education. "He wanted to say thank you to Kansas for sending so many teachers to Nebraska,” McNiece told his board colleagues. “Ouch. Big Ouch.”

The problem of teachers fleeing Kansas came to light a year ago when the Independence School District in Missouri bought two billboards touting open jobs in the district. Not only was there data on teachers leaving Kansas but data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) that showed the number of license applications from teachers with a Kansas address had doubled since 2011.

It showed what the panel called a "greening" of the profession. Almost a quarter of all teachers in Kansas have less than four years experience and 40 percent have less than nine years in the classroom. The blue ribbon report also said that fewer students are majoring in education.

I'm sure some of our resident cons would try to spin this as a positive thing.