Retirements could strap Oklahoma schools
Baby boomers outnumber recruits

Nearly half of Oklahoma’s teachers could retire in the coming decade. Meanwhile, fewer teachers are coming from Oklahoma’s colleges and universities to replace them.

A recent National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future report warns that as baby boomers reach retirement age, states will lose large numbers of teachers; the retirements will peak in the 2010-11 school year.

The average retirement age is 59. In Oklahoma, 46 percent of teachers are age 50 or older, according to the report.

Oklahoma has seen an increasing number of retirements in the past few years, said Sharron Coffman, director of client services for the Oklahoma Teachers’ Retirement System. In June, 1,085 teachers retired. June usually has the highest number of retirements, but the number normally is closer to 800, Coffman said.

Coffman said teacher retirement age ranges between 50 and 70. In 2004-05, a total of 2,336 teachers retired. Numbers jumped to 3,064 the next year, probably because legislation increased the retirement benefit, she said. In 2008-09, 2,599 retired.

Michael Shanahan, senior human resources officer for the Oklahoma City School District, said administrators are recruiting heavily and must pay attention to the coming wave of baby boomer retirements. Districts must pay competitively to attract teachers, he said.

"We have been talking about that in the school business for years,” Shanahan said.

"We do expect an impact,” he said.

The number of new teachers entering the work force isn’t enough to fill the ranks. According to the State Regents for Higher Education, admissions to teacher education programs at state universities fell about 24 percent between 1998 and 2008.

In 1998, a total of 2,590 people entered the programs. Last year, there were 1,974. Some of that decline has been offset by alternative certifications.

Oklahoma State University, once the largest producer of teachers, has seen a drop of almost 50 percent in education department admissions in the last decade. Northeastern State University in Tahlequah is now the leader with 474 admissions in 2007-08, a number that has declined slightly in recent years.

Some colleges have managed to keep the numbers up. At Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, teacher education admissions have remained between 70 and 80 students each year.

More importantly, many of those students remain in the northwestern part of the state when they graduate, said Sue Diel, chairman of the department.

"Our schools in northwest Oklahoma are very supportive. The communities are welcoming them back,” Diel said.

Diel said teaching has a reputation as a difficult profession whose members have to deal with low pay and combative parents. Most would-be teachers have a passion for helping children and like the stability of the profession, especially in an uncertain economy.

"We’ve got to get the word out about how fulfilling a teaching career is,” said Bill Pink, associate dean for the teacher program at the University of Central Oklahoma. The program admitted 285 students in 2007-08, down 13 percent from a decade ago.

Pink said UCO is working closely with local school districts to promote teaching as a career, especially to minority students. He said districts also are looking at ways to retain teachers because so many leave the profession within a few years.

One approach is recruiting retiring teachers to mentor new educators.

The average pay for Oklahoma teachers in 2006-07 was $38,772 compared with $41,613 in states contiguous to Oklahoma and $49,026 nationally, according to state Education Department data.

So far alternative certification seems to be making up the gap between the number of traditionally certified teachers and those retiring. People changing careers can go through an alternative certification program through the state Education Department or, starting in the coming year, through the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence’s online program.

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