A report released last week on teacher retirements and new teacher licenses in Kansas points to a troubling trend in this important profession.

The Kansas Department of Education reported that more than 2,000 teachers retired last year — a number than has doubled in the last five years. During that time period, the number of new teachers who have received licenses in Kansas has remained almost steady at about 2,500 while the number of students has increased by about 13,400.

The rise in retirements has been predicted for some time by education officials because of the number of women who entered the teaching field during a time when their job options were more limited and who now are reaching retirement age. What has taken some education officials by surprise, however, is the shortage of teachers to fill elementary school positions.

In the past, some school districts didn’t even advertise elementary school jobs because they always had a steady stream of applications for those jobs. Now, those jobs are getting more difficult to fill, especially in rural areas. For instance, the Garden City district reportedly faced seven elementary school vacancies at the beginning of the year. The district hired five long-term substitute teachers and increased some class sizes to deal with the shortfall — a less-than-ideal solution.

The state recently revised its licensing standards to accommodate teachers who have expertise in certain subject areas but don’t have education degrees. That strategy is likely to have more impact on filling vacancies at the secondary level than at elementary schools.

There’s little hard data on what is causing the declined interest in teaching careers, but teacher organizations point to several factors, including the fact that teacher salaries in Kansas have been sinking in comparison to salaries in other states. In the last five years, Kansas’ average teacher salary has dropped from 37th to 42nd among the 50 states.

At all grade levels, there is nothing more important to a high quality education than to have well-qualified and passionate teachers in the classroom. Kansas needs to make sure it is offering the competitive salaries and the positive work environment that will attract and retain the top teachers the state needs.