The Democrat & Chronicle examines the aging of our educators in the Rochester, N.Y. / Monroe County region. The article also looks at the aging issue in higher education, though here I would expect the problem to be less since it is not uncommon for college professors to teach well into their seventies while nearly all public school teachers retire between 55 and 60.

Their key table, with all the districts, the number of teachers and administrators, and the percentage of those over 55, does not appear on-line. The percentages range from a low of 11% to a high of 22%. The Census Bureau has a table that provides New York State estimates for similar age ranges. 6.2% of the state’s population falls into the 55-59 age range, retirement age for teachers. So, it would appear that the teaching profession has double or triple the people nearing retirement age that the general population does.

That said, the result is that there are fewer younger teachers, administrators and professors than will be needed to replace retirees. The D&C points to these reasons:

Pam VanGraafeiland, 58, a first-grade teacher at Pittsford’s Park Road Elementary School, said there are more career options today than when she entered the field 36 years ago.

Other careers “seem to be more prestigious, either salary-wise or in the eyes of the community,” said VanGraafeiland, who expects to retire in three or four years.

Experts also blame the shortages on:

• Baby boomers approaching retirement age in droves.
• Certification requirements that limit flexibility for special-education teachers.
• Increased global competition for college faculty and the lure of increased research funding overseas.

Since the numbers of teachers exceed the the numbers in the general population approaching retirement age, reason one is semi-true. It does not account for the largers numbers in the profession, it just says that they’re going to retire.

The second item addresses one tiny aspect of the issue. The numbers of special education teachers are far fewer than teachers as a whole, and I would suggest, the field calls for a somewhat different character and temperment.

The third item is just a repeat of a higher-education meme that is not and was never true. Research allows many college professors to supplement their incomes significantly, ten times or more. On the other hand, much of the teaching is then done by their graduate students. Research brings money into colleges and enriches research professors but may adds nothing to the education of the students at that institution.

Men first entered the education profession in large numbers during the Vietnam War. Attending college and then teaching in a public school was an ideal way to avoid being drafted. As with any government incentive gone awry, a large number of men became teachers without the desire or the motivation to educate. Reason one why Tommy can’t read, by the way.

Coupled to that fiasco was the growth of teachers’ unions. Union pressure imposed, by government fiat, increasingly demanding educational requirements for certification, and contractual tenure granted for reasons other than ability.

Educators are being disingenuous when they claim that educational requirements are limiting access to the profession. They are the ones who have promoted these barriers as “improving the quality” of the profession. It was for the children, of course, as if a first grader’s education is enhanced by his teacher’s masters degree over another teacher with just a four year degree.

It never occurs to some educators that they are being paid just exactly what they’re worth. Rochester has a 39% graduation rate. I could suggest that Rochester teachers may be overpaid, based upon their results.

At the college level, it is much the same. Less than 30% of every freshman class will graduate from the typical college, and of those who do not, half will never graduate from a college. At a two year college I worked at, we went from 6 people on campus making over $90,000 a year to, 20 years later, well over 100. Each and every year during those 20 years we attritted 20-30% of every freshman class. Overpaid to teach auto mechanics or dairy farming?

More than once, at both the high school and college level, I’ve heard “Things would be so much easier if the students didn’t keep bothering us.”

Young people become teachers today because that’s what they want to do. I believe being called to a profession produces the best in that profession. It may not be a disaster when these “over 55″ teachers and professors retire. The teaching profession may discover that it is quite possible to teach effectively with more than 15 students in the classroom. Teachers and professors might actually have office hours and be available for students.

FWIW, I have worked in both higher education [15 years] and secondary education [5 years] so I am familiar with the profession.