HOLTON ? Jason Larison moves around his classroom, helping students in an agriculture business class at Holton High School use their laptops to complete a test review.

Later, using an electronic chalkboard that allows students to retrieve his notes on their laptops, he lectures on the relative merits of sole ownership, partnerships and corporations. The 10 students are engaged, mixing good questions with wisecracks and jabs at each other.

Larison, who has run this school’s agriculture education program for 11 years, acknowledges being tempted by offers to pursue more lucrative careers. But he says he loves his job and the lifestyle it gives him in this Jackson County town of 3,345 people about 30 miles north of Topeka.

“There is probably not a more rewarding job than teaching,” he says. “Especially ag ed, because it combines so many different interests. It has a million applications in the real world. I won’t say it’s not hard work, but it’s a lot of fun.”

Schools across the United States are looking for people like Larison. A persistent shortage of ag educators, coupled with a growing demand for such programs, has school districts searching hard for teachers and universities aggressively recruiting new ag education students.

A study done for the National Association of Agricultural Educators estimated that 1,175 new agriculture teachers were needed in the nation’s schools in the fall of 2001, but only 693 new graduates were looking for teaching positions.

Tom Broyles, an assistant professor of agriculture extension and education at Virginia Tech, and Adam Kantrovich, an assistant professor at Morehead State University, are currently updating the NAAE study through 2004.

Broyles said early responses from 87 universities that graduate ag education teachers showed about 770 new teachers graduated in 2004, up from about 685 in 2001. Of the 770 in 2004, about 500 are employed as ag education teachers. The rest took another path, such as teaching a different subject, farming, agribusiness or pursuing another degree.

Broyles said it was too soon to determine if the demand was still as high as in the last survey.

But Roger Robinson, superintendent of the Lorraine School District in central Kansas, has no doubt about demand. He’s been looking for an ag education teacher for the district’s two high schools in Wilson and Bushton since last spring, when the ag education teacher resigned to take a job with another district.

Despite an intense search, Robinson said the district had no qualified applicants and reduced its program for this school year to a couple of metals classes.

“We could not find anyone to fill that position,” Robinson said. “We beat the bushes. And we have a long-standing, tradition-rich program. We’ve had a national FFA president come out of this program. It was very disheartening.”

Robinson said he found applicants after the school year started, including some from other states and students who will graduate in the spring.

One of the most prominent reasons for the continuing shortage of teachers is that ag education graduates have many options other than teaching.

“The ag industry hires away a lot of good teachers,” said Steve Harbstreit, coordinator of the Agriculture Education program at Kansas State University. “Our graduates are very marketable. And it’s like teaching in general, there are a whole lot of rules and regulations to get a license that discourages people from entering the profession.”

Kansas State currently has about 85 students in its ag education program and would like to have more, he said.

“We’re hitting the recruiting trail hard,” Harbstreit said. “We have 28 new students this fall. We’re focusing our efforts on getting the students here and keeping them.”

Andy Seibel, a regional vice president of the NAAE and an FFA specialist at Virginia Tech, said the shortage is felt more in rural districts because many ag education teachers go to larger, urban districts that tend to pay better.

That was the case in the Lorraine district, Robinson said, where the last few teachers have been beginning teachers who then moved on.

“Hanging on to them is the most difficult part,” Robinson said.

Successful ag education programs also must now include a variety of subjects not taught in past programs that focused on farming. That includes such things as genetics, business practices, horticulture, ecology and natural resources.

“We no longer teach just plows and cows,” Seibel said. “We’re switching emphasis from traditional production agriculture to more scientific-based programs.”

The shortage comes at a time when interest in ag education and ag business careers is growing. The FFA currently has 490,000 student members, an all-time high, said Harbstreit, who said some schools in Kansas and nationally have added new ag education programs.

“I’m as excited about the future as I’ve been in 35 years in this business,” Harbstreit said. “If you run a program like it was run 40 years ago, it won’t fly. But if you want to run a good, modern program, I think there’s tons of opportunities.”

Back in Holton, Larison said he’s incorporated the changing requirements in his curriculum since he took the job in 1995, and is lucky to work in a district that supports teachers using the newest technology.

“I try to teach a diverse curriculum,” he said. “What I do changes every day, from things like record-keeping to building trailers to landscaping to horticulture. That fits my personality. It’s the flexibility and the kids I truly enjoy.”