A handful of states are attempting to crack down on the hiring of teachers without full qualifications. While the shortage of teachers for most subjects is being felt in pockets across the country, the scarcity of special education teachers is nearly universal. One of the nation's fastest growing districts is cultivating its own supply of special education teachers by paying paraprofessionals' tuition and salaries while they go to school. A Virginia college offers long-distance learning to train teachers for special education. Some attrition is healthy in any field as a way of weeding out the less competent, but the teaching profession is notorious for cannibalizing its young.
Schools regularly give the toughest assignments to the newest recruits.
The attrition problem among younger teachers is so acute, some experts say, that it outweighs retirement as a cause of teacher shortages. The distribution of needed teachers is uneven nationwide. Some Sun Belt and fast-growing states are scrambling to find teachers. Others, though, consistently produce many more than they can hire. Even within states, the employment picture can differ dramatically.