Kansas faces teacher shortage
Dr. Regier of placement bureau blames salaries enrollment increase for 6,525 vacancies
By RUTH ROHRER
Kansas public schools face a teacher shortage in the fields of English, physical sciences, foreign language, math, special education and elementary education.
Dr. Harold Regier, director of the education placement bureau said that there are 6,525 teaching vacancies in Kansas to be filled by education school graduates.
LAST YEAR the bureau received notification of 36,500 public school vacancies. The bureau was able to fill only 672 of these places—426 of these were in Kansas, Regier said.
"English and science are fields of great opportunity for teachers," Regier said. "But how much opportunity there really is in most fields depends on how many graduates there are, not only at KU, but in other colleges as well."
There are shortages in fields for which KU does not prepare people, such as library science, industrial arts, agriculture and home economics.
"THE INCREASING shortage is due to the increase of enrollment in public schools, teachers leaving for military service or to take jobs in business and industry and the usual loss of teachers who retire or become housewives," Regier said.
Public schools attempt to adjust to the shortage by using substitute teachers, doubling up on assignments, eliminating courses and drafting housewives back into teaching.
"The schools are going to have to improve their salary schedules if they are going to attract enough qualified teachers." Regier said.
TEACHER SALARIES in Kansas are slightly below those of other states. During their first year of teaching, education graduates can make approximately $200 more teaching in other states.
The difference in salaries becomes more noticeable when teachers have gained years of experience in the field.
According to information compiled by the educational placement bureau, with five years experience teachers in other states make about $900 more per year than Kansas teachers with the same amount of experience.
PERHAPS THIS is one of the reasons KU students accept teaching positions outside Kansas, Regier said.
"However, it is also due to general population mobility and women who teach in areas where their husbands are in the military service, have jobs or go to graduate school."
But the majority of KU's education majors stay in Kansas. Of the 672 persons the education placement bureau placed last year, 63 per cent stayed in Kansas. Only 37 per cent moved to another state.
More experienced teachers tend to leave Kansas. Last year 39 per cent of the experienced teachers registered with the bureau accepted positions out of state. Only 30 per cent of the inexperienced teachers left Kansas.
When You're in Doubt—Try It Out, Kansan Classifieds.
'Kansas economy lags,' Huff says
Kansas economy has not kept pace with the national growth rate, David L. Huff, professor of business administration at KU and director of the Center for Regional Studies, wrote in an article in the Kansas Business Review.
Population, employment, and income are important indicators of regional economic growth, Huff wrote.
Nonagricultural industries in Kansas have not expanded sufficiently to absorb the labor surplus.
COLLEGE GRADUATES and workers displaced by technological developments in farming are among the potentially productive persons who leave Kansas to seek employment elsewhere, Huff said.
Although the growth rate in Kansas increased by 1.1 per cent the population rate lagged behind the national rate by 9.2 per cent. The increase occurred in the older age bracket whereas the loss occurred among persons between 20-44.
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Daily Kansan
Friday, October 14, 1966
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