Will Hawaii Have Enough Teachers?

R.J. Brown/Civil Beat

Teachers union president Wil Okabe is concerned that relatively low teacher salaries in Hawaii will make it difficult to continue attracting new teachers from the mainland.

The state has a 15 percent teacher turnover rate, which means the state needs to hire as many as 1,600 teachers per year.

The turnover rate has been a concern for some analysts at the Hawaii Education Policy Center, because it could indicate a retention problem.

But two years ago the department saw a drop in turnover, from roughly 1,600 in 2007-2008 to a little more than 1,300 in the 2008-2009 school year. Data for last year will not be available until late summer.

The Hawaii Department of Education credits the decline to programs designed to provide support for new teachers, said communications director Sandy Goya. There is no problem recruiting teachers from the mainland, she said.

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