The University of California, meanwhile, is offering full scholarships to 400 students who promise to teach in poor communities. Neither the credentialing commission, which licenses 27,000 teachers each year, nor the California Teachers Association, which represents them, has done recent studies to determine why teachers leave the profession. But there is ample anecdotal evidence that many teachers feel underpaid, overstressed and undervalued. At a conference this summer in Sacramento, longtime school administrators sat with mouths agape as they were told of the critical teacher shortage. Only a couple of the 30 school officials in the room raised their hands.
Teachers also complain that the credentialing process itself is a barrier.
It was only after I drove up to the office in Sacramento that I got my questions answered. The office issues more than 100 different credentials in various subjects. Applicants complain the costs mount up. Stanford University professor Linda Darling-Hammond, a member of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, said salaries should be raised and working conditions improved. Bee staff writer Laura Mecoy contributed to this report.