School districts across Indiana are having trouble finding people to fill open teaching positions amid a nearly 63 percent drop in the number of licenses issued for first-time teachers by the state.
The Greensburg Daily News reports the Indiana Department of Education says the state issued 16,578 licenses to first-time teachers, including teachers with licenses in multiple subject areas, in the 2009-2010 school year. That number dropped to 6,174 for the 2013-14 school year, the most recent for which data were available.
The dwindling pool of educators is raising alarm in some school districts as they struggle to fill open positions, especially in math, science and foreign languages.
School leaders say state funding constraints, testing pressures and a blame-the-teachers mentality are steering people away from education as a career.
