Shortages are so bad in parts of the United States, and particularly in some subject areas, that recruiters are acting almost like sports agents, offering bonuses and entering into low-key bidding wars. New York City school officials have gone as far afield as Austria and Spain to hire teachers. According to Education Secretary Richard Riley, 2.2 million new teachers will be needed in the next decade, and officials at the U.S. Department of Education speak of being ''jolted'' by the enormous challenge of finding them.
Shortages are especially acute in some poor rural areas and big cities.
More affluent districts, particularly in the suburbs, have fewer problems in recruiting teachers although some have struggled to find qualified teachers in mathematics, science and special education. This is particularly true in fast-growing Western and Southern states. California, for instance, will need to recruit 250,000 teachers in the next decade. In addition, more than a million teachers are close to retirement age nationwide. Some school systems have had to send administrators into the classrooms, at least temporarily, while others have induced retiring teachers to stay on.