Teachers in Idaho leave their jobs almost as often as retail workers do, according to the Idaho Department of Labor.

Over the course of 10 years, about 27 percent of K-12 teachers in Idaho, in both public and private schools, will leave the profession, or leave Idaho, according to the state labor department.

The nation’s teacher shortage hasn’t spared Idaho. School districts are finding there aren’t enough qualified educators coming from Idaho colleges and universities to make up for the number of teachers that need replacing, let alone the number of teachers districts have to hire due to growth.

“There is a really high demand problem. We see ‘teacher shortage’ in headlines all the time in Idaho,” said Kathryn Tacke, a regional economist. “But the numbers aren’t reflecting that as much as you’d think they would.”

There are about 20,450 people working in Idaho as elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers. Labor projects Idaho will add 304 teaching jobs per year until 2024 due to population growth.

In addition to the growth, another 68 openings will need to be filled each year to replace teachers who retire, quit the profession, or find jobs in other states.

So, there will be roughly 372 teaching job openings that will need to be filled each year in Idaho.

The number of education graduates coming from Idaho schools seems to be enough to fill these positions, but many teachers leave one school to take a job at another, creating many more openings school districts need to fill, Tacke said.

And, she added, Idaho

graduates don’t all stay in Idaho to teach. Some may not go on to teach at all.

“Fewer people are interested in taking those [teaching] jobs and there is huge competition for workers in Washington state and other neighbors,” Tacke said.

Regional post-secondary schools have seen their education program enrollment and graduation numbers steadily decrease since about 2009.

The education program at the University of Idaho has seen enrollment steadily decline for students seeking a bachelor’s degree over the past five years from 1,103 students in 2010 to 767 students in 2015.

Lewis Clark State College has seen a small increase in enrollment in its education program over the past three years, from 416 students in 2014 to 473 last year.

“We work really closely with the admissions office… trying to identify incoming students that might want to be a teacher,” explained Heather Van Mullem, the chair of the education and kinesiology division at LCSC. “We work with those students to create an enrollment plan, we target how we talk to them about programs and we bring them on campus to meet program faculty so when they do come to school, they already know one or two of their teachers.”

Even though the University of Idaho’s education enrollment has been decreasing, Ali Carr-Chellman, dean of the college of education, said the numbers probably aren’t as drastic as they seem.

“We think it’s vital to recognize that there is a teacher pipeline issue, but I’m not sure the numbers have been reported in the right ways,” she said, noting the numbers from the state don’t necessarily include people who are going for a certificate only, instead of a degree.

Those people are still qualified educators she said.

She also noted though the college’s enrollment numbers have gone down, its student credit hours haven’t changed much.

“I think it’s because many people are going for a certification only and don’t come up as enrolled in our bachelor’s program,” she said.

An article in February’s North Idaho Business Journal, which has been inserted in today’s paper, goes deeper into the region's K-12 schools' struggle to retain and replace teachers.