UNDATED (WSAU-WXPR) — A report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week detailed a growing shortage of teachers as more Baby Boomers retire, something concerning current educators.
Ron Martin is President of Wisconsin Education Association Council and an 8th grade teacher in Eau Claire. He says information from the state education colleges suggests the same thing as the Sentinel report.
“Working with our UW-System and our student program we have an incredible shortage of people wanting to go into the teaching profession, which is concerning when we take a look at the data and the number of people retiring in the next five years,” said Martin.
“We see individuals who start in teaching but the debt that they come out of college with is so high that they don’t go into teaching or they leave it real soon. I’m also seeing the lack of support we’re giving new educators.”
A program has been started in high schools called “Educators Rising” in partnership with the Department of Public Instruction and others, supporting individuals interested in going into education and giving advice to those students undecided in a career path. A similar group has been started at UW colleges as well.
