Teacher Retirements On The Rise

Kansas school districts report a higher pace of teachers retiring while the number of newly licensed teachers remains flat.

More than 2,000 teachers retired last school year. The state’s education department says that’s double the number of teachers that retired five years earlier.

Scott Myers is the department’s director of teacher education and licensure. He says the teacher retirement figures are subject to error because it’s self-reported data from school districts.

The Education Department says about 2,500 new teachers received licenses last year, which is almost the same number of those who earned licenses five years earlier.

Meanwhile, the state saw an increase of 13,400 students over the same period of time.