BYU NewsNet - Editorial: Teacher shortage

The Associated Press reported a startling statistic last week. Utah spends less on education, per student, than any other state in the country.

As a result, it is becoming quite difficult to retain our existing teachers or attract new ones. The most frightening fact of the matter is, in order to maintain the current student-to-teacher ratio, Utah needs to hire about 1,000 new teachers during each of the next eight years.

Utah Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Salt Lake City, who is also a teacher, blamed the difficulty of retaining and attracting teachers directly on teacher salaries. She said there are just too many other attractive options that pay better.

Some might argue that teachers shouldn’t get paid as much as other professionals because they don’t have to teach during the summer. This is true for some teachers, but many of them teach summer school, and still can’t make ends meet. Even those who don’t teach in the summer have to prepare lesson plans and do administrative work in the summer, preparing for the next school year.

Some might argue that the reason Utah ranks last in money spent on education is because of the low tax base and high birth rate. They’re right, but that not the point. Whatever the reason for the teacher shortage is, Utah residents have to deal with it. After all, as cliché as it may sound, it’s for our children.

Another interesting story about our children came over the AP wire last week. It is about a bill that would make it a felony for a convicted child molester to move without updating their address with the authorities.

The editorial board takes no position on the bill, but it is interesting that as a society, we will take extreme measures to protect our children from sex offenders, but we won’t spend the money necessary to educate them properly.

Maybe some people still just don’t think teachers deserve more than $20-30,000 a year. Fine, but the students deserve whatever it takes to keep quality teachers in their classrooms.

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This editorial represents the opinion of The Daily Universe editorial board. Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of BYU, its administration, or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.