Because of the Relentless Attack on the Teaching Profession,

with schools and school districts being run more and more by sociopaths, crooks, and "reformers" who hate teachers' guts and think they are expendable, California at least is seeing a plunge in the teaching supply.

Either this is true or else school districts want to cry "shortage" to have even more idiots go into this horrible line of work.

Maybe, just maybe, people are realizing education is really not about "making a difference in students' lives" but instead is about a gang of crooks in administration who are in it solely for the substantial pay and perks.  Anybody who gets in their way has his or her life destroyed.

Snip:

The impact of other factors is harder to pinpoint, such as the intense pressures on teachers to increase test scores under No Child Left Behind over the past decade, and more recent moves to link teacher evaluation to test scores of students.

Because of budget cuts, teachers are expected to do more with less, typically teaching in larger classes, with fewer counseling and other staff to help out with hard-to-teach children. All this comes on top of reductions in salaries and benefits in the form of unpaid furlough days, increased health care premiums, and other cost-saving measures.

"Teachers are coping with lower compensation, fewer resources and increasing expectations of student achievement," said Shields. "It is a reasonable expectation that a college sophomore or junior might think 'I might not even get a job, so perhaps I should look for another career.'"

Not to worry:  It won't be long before the "reformers" clamor for more "distance learning" for K-12 so they can simply outsource "teachers" from China and India.