Samantha Nicklau loves living in Oklahoma, the place she has always called her home.

Her family lives in Bethany, and many of her friends live in Norman. She came to OU as a student and found her love for children and teaching. When Nicklau looks back on her past, she sees a life in Oklahoma full of memories.

Nicklau, University College freshman who plans to major in elementary education, sees her future in Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts or Pennsylvania, anywhere but Oklahoma.

"I can't see myself teaching in Oklahoma. They don't pay enough for the work a teacher does," Nicklau said. "I will probably go somewhere in the Northeast."

Nicklau's situation is one all too familiar to Oklahoma. The teacher shortage in Oklahoma continues to grow after it began decades ago. The United States is facing the worst teacher shortage in history, according to Phi Delta Kappa, an organization for professional educators.

More than 1,100 Oklahoma teachers are lost yearly to surrounding states, according to a report prepared for the speaker of the State House of Representatives. About 540 teachers quit the profession each year.

Twenty-two percent of new teachers quit after three years. After seven years, 40 percent leave. They leave each year for better salaries and better teaching working conditions.

Finding substitutes for all of the teachers who are leaving is becoming an even larger problem for school districts. Although different teacher shortage studies and officials have developed programs to bring in and keep more teachers, critics say the programs are not working.

"Money is a moving target. Other states are increasing teachers' pay also," said Ramona Paul, assistant state superintendent.

She said as the economy continues to stay strong, teachers and substitute teachers choose to go somewhere else.

The Oklahoma State Board of Education said its hands are tied. The State House and Senate are trying to fix problems with health insurance protection and heating bill appropriations. House members say they have too little money to give a raise and the state senators say they wish they could give more money.

"The answer to the teacher shortage is simple," Nicklau said. "Teachers don't get paid enough for what they do."

Nicklau and other students studying to be teachers plan to leave Oklahoma after graduation for better salaries. Most surrounding states pay their teachers an average of $2,000 more per year than Oklahoma does.

Many school officials agree that low salaries are a big problem in teacher shortages. Michael Langenbach, OU associate dean of education, said that as long as salaries are low, there's always going to be vacancies in important areas like math and science.

"Why would someone with a math degree work as a teacher for $27,000," Langenbach said. "They might as well go work at AT&T for $40,000."

Floyd said the logic of setting teacher salaries does not make sense.

"As a society, we rank them with doctors and lawyers in terms of importance, but in pay they are near the bottom of the list for professionals," Floyd said.

"There are serious funding issues," said Charlie Floyd, letters junior. "We must find a way despite this to pay our teachers what they are worth, or they will all leave us."

The structure of Oklahoma's teaching system is also a concern of teachers leaving to teach in other states. Nicklau said open-room classrooms are also at the top of her list. Open-room classrooms are large rooms divided into different class sections. Another factor is a growing student population in the West and the Southwest where mandates for class size are still lower.

"There's no way I could stand teaching in an open-room classroom," Nicklau said. "We're running out of space to put schools, so it's a way to just cram students in one room."

A report from Apollo Elementary School in Bethany shows plans to eliminate open-room classrooms in the next three years, Nicklau said, but many other elementary schools are still waiting and hoping for the change.

Where a majority of teachers are moving is evident: Texas. Of the 1,100 teachers Oklahoma loses a year to other states, about 650 go to Texas, according to the House speaker's report. Others primarily benefiting from Oklahoma teachers include Colorado, Kansas and many private businesses across the country.

The report stated a large portion of these teachers who are leaving are experienced in the fields most desperately needed in elementary and middle schools: math, science, foreign language and special education. At the same time, school boards are pleading with universities to educate more teachers in these fields.

This could lead to another potential problem, according to Phi Delta Kappa.An increase of warm bodies could lead to a deterioration of the quality of education.

In 1994, almost one-fourth of all new teachers hired in the United States had no license or a substandard license in the subject they were teaching.

An alternative certification program is a way to add teachers who are qualified in the Oklahoma schools districts by matching their college degrees and years of experience to a field of education.

"We have scientists, businessmen, all sorts of people who either retire early or just want to change their career certified through our alternative teaching program," Paul said.

This program does not give higher salaries, though. Paul said people who are certified through the program want to teach instead of work in their current field.

The alternative program does not produce enough teachers for the state.

"The board recognizes that there is a problem," Paul said. "These things, however, cannot be changed overnight."

While many school officials believe the alternative certification might be a solution to the teacher shortage, professors at Columbia University Teachers College in New York have another idea.

A study conducted by Columbia University Teachers College concluded that the teacher shortage in the United States is not due to people leaving the field for higher salaries, but people leaving because of early dissatisfaction.

Andy Lutrell, elementary education senior at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, said 40 percent of all new teachers drop out within seven years. Student discipline problems and little support from school officials are their main concerns.

"It seems like high school kids are just heathens today," Lutrell said. "So many beginning teachers just get so frustrated and decide they could find work that is less stressful."

Aware of the study done at Columbia, the Michigan State Board of Education mandated that schools develop mentoring programs for teachers in their first three years of teaching.

Requirements include the assignment of a master teacher as a mentor who will yearly evaluate if the new teacher is satisfied with their work, Lutrell said. Michigan has noticed a small decrease in its shortage of teachers.

Some teachers in Oklahoma wonder if a mentoring program might be a solution to the teacher shortage, Lutrell said.

Many people still think that the low salaries attribute to the lack of teachers in the state.

Ron Roblyer, assistant superintendent of Moore Public Schools, said money is not the reason they stay in Oklahoma.

"Teachers are staying in Oklahoma, because their family is here or they enjoy the lifestyle," Roblyer said.

Oklahoma's minimum salary schedule is $27,060 a year for a teacher just out of college with a bachelor's degree.

Texas school districts are required to pay at least $24,280 a year, but most schools pay significantly more, said Jack Kelly, legal analyst for the Texas State Teachers Association.

"They may have to pay only $24,000, but only 20 to 25 percent of the districts actually pay that low," Kelly said. "All the other districts pay significantly higher."

The average salary for teachers just out of college in Texas make about $35,000, Roblyer said.

There is very little the state board can do to increase tuition.

"All the State Board of Education can do is ask the Legislature for more money," Paul said.

The board asked the Oklahoma State Senate this year for an increase in teacher salaries with at least 10 years experience. State Rep. Bill Nations, D-Norman, said there is not enough money in the Oklahoma budget this year.

"There is an amount of money left over this year after we allocated money to programs already in existence," Nations said. "With the money that is left, about $100 million, we appropriate a certain amount to education."

The money given to education is then divided into three sections: common or primary education, vocational technology education and higher education, Nations said.

"Instead of giving the money to the schools with a requirement to spend it on teacher salaries or supplies, we will put it in a formula in which the school districts get a set amount of money," Nations said.

That money will be spent at the discretion of the schools, Nations said. The money could go to anything from repairs to teachers' salaries.

"We passed the $3,000 raise last year because we set out at the beginning to give the teachers a raise," Nations said.

Part of what helped with the raise last year was more money from growth, Nations said. This year, there has been less growth money than in the past two years, with only $300 million compared to $500 million in 1999.

State Sen. Cal Hobson, D-Lexington, said there is $100 million left to go toward education.

"Last year, we passed a $3,000 across-the-board pay raise for teachers' salaries," Hobson said. "That was the largest pay increase for teachers in state history. It cost us a total of $64 million and the amount of money we have to work with grows smaller with Governor Frank Keating's demands on reduced taxes."

Hobson said the Senate is working on alternatives to ease the hardships that teachers have. These alternatives include a plan to shield teachers from health insurance increases as much as possible, significant contributions to the retirement funds, increased money on textbooks, and an increased appropriations to schools for heating bills.

The heating bill funding has already passed and is in effect in the school systems. Paul said the board asked for the additional funding to help prevent the schools from giving teachers a pay cut.

"With the appropriations, they have kept the teacher salaries from dropping," Paul said.

Nicklau said the money should go to salaries.

"They have the technology. They have the resources," Nicklau said. "There is enough money to put in repairs instead of administration's pockets. We need to pay the teachers. As long as we teach them well, we don't need more resources.

"It's great that they are trying to ease the problem. I don't know if it will be enough, though."
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