The influx of the baby boom echo students into classrooms creates a need for more teachers as these students move from elementary school through high school. However, the highest concentration of teachers in the 1998-99 school year is in the mid-40s to early 50s age range, many of whom were originally hired during the earlier rise in enrollment during the late 1960s and early 1970s. This means that a large number of teachers will be nearing the end of their teaching career within the next five to ten years. An estimated 2.2 million public school teachers will need to be hired over the next ten years to both meet enrollment increases and replace those teachers who retire or leave the profession for other reasons.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Schools and Staffing Survey," Projections of Education Statistics to 2008, Digest of Education Statistics , "Common Core of Data," and unpublished data.

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[ Figure 9. -- Classroom teachers in public and private elementary and secondary schools: Fall 1983 to fall 2008 ] [ Figure 11. -- Enrollment in public and private 2-year and 4-year colleges, by attendance status: Fall 1983 to fall 2008 ]