New Hampshire's teacher shortage is reaching a danger point.
Hundreds of teachers are eligible to retire. School districts are having trouble finding qualified replacements.
The new chairman of the state board of education has a controversial solution - higher paychecks for some teachers.
New Hampshire Public Radio correspondent John Milne has the story:
More than a thousand teachers will be eligible for retirement this year.
That's out of a work force of fewer than 15-thousand.
Many of those eligible to retire will stay in the classroom, but many won't. And young teachers are quitting at alarmingly high rates. State education leaders worry that there aren't enough graduates to replace those leaving.
Some state educators are calling the shortage a slow-motion train wreck.
(teachers1)
I think it's a disaster waiting to happen. And it will happen over the next few years. We have something like 40 percent of our teachers who are of retirement age within the next few years. The statistic is something crazy like that.
That's Fred Bramante, chairman of the state Board of Education.
Bramante says this week he will recommend premium pay for teachers in subjects where there are big shortages - these include math, science and special education.
(teacher2)
That's the way the rest of America works. Why should education be different from that? Because education has chosen to be different from that, then those individuals who might be attracted to the profession, they choose something else.
Thus teachers in the same school, with the same education, with the same experience, could earn different paychecks, based on the subject each one teaches. Nick Donahue is commissioner of education.
(teacher3)
The issue of differential pay is the hottest topic in the area of teacher compensation and attracting and retaining teachers. Everybody wants to do something. Everybody knows pay is an issue.
But Donahue, who reports to Bramante's board, says raises are just a partial solution. Teachers also care about working conditions, leadership and community support.
(teacher4)
It seems like a common-sense approach. I think it's more complicated than that. But I think we're going to have to examine it in New Hampshire.
That examination will have to involve the teachers' unions as well as local school officials. Teacher pay is set through bargaining on the school district level.
Leave the policymakers and present the issue to physics teachers at Concord High School.
They say they aren't teaching for the money.
Nathan Carle went to Concord High and now teaches there - after getting a degree in astrophysics.
(teacher6)
I tried different options, including engineering and research. Those just didn't have any fulfillment for me. But as I was tutoring students and working with others on the college level, I got some fulfillment from that, and went into it, and I found that each day you learn something new and do something new and you get to know the students. It's corny, but you do make a difference.
They may not be in it for the money, but money plays a role.
Veteran teacher Hilary Thomson believes separate pay scales would divide teachers.
(teacher8)
I think that choosing different fields and giving different pay scales for the field a person has chosen to teach in would be strange and make us feel a little uncomfortable.
Chad Fleming has taught physics for a decade. He considered no other career. But now he finds himself a topic in the policy debate. Fleming just got married, and housing in Concord is very expensive.
(teacher9)
I'm shocked to feel it, or to think it, but I'm finding that my community is telling me that we want you to come, and we want you to teach our kids, but we really don't want you to live here. Or you can't afford to live here on your salary. It's not discouraging, because teaching is a great thing, and you can't get it out of my blood, but it's quite a mixed bag of feelings.
Seventy per cent of those who leave teaching say low pay is chiefly responsible.
For N-H-P-R News, I'm John Milne
