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Show Do We Need More School Teachers? The situation in Utah with regards re-gards to the lack of school teachers I Is becoming steadily worse, and unless un-less some dra tic action is taken soon the entire school system of the .state may collapse. Many teachers throughout the state are In the school room only on an emergency ba is, and yet practically every school in the state Is under staffed. With better pay offered In almost al-most every field of endeavor than in the teaching profession, fewer Hnd fewer teachers are being trained train-ed each yer.r with the result that each year the situation has become be-come more critical. Increased salaries can do more thr.n anything else to meet the back lo? of demand for qualified teachers, and It Is the re ponsibility of every progressive citizen in the state to support the school leaders lead-ers in their current effort to provide pro-vide a better salary chedule. In 1941 the three higher institutions insti-tutions In Utah recommended 736 graduates to the State Board of Education for certification as teach" ers. In 1942 th; number recommended recom-mended was 584, in 1943, 378; 1944, 190, and in 194S, only 173 were recommended. At the f&me time It is estimated by N. Blaine Winters, State Director of Teacher Personnel Person-nel in the State School Office, that 1500 certified teachers are needed need-ed to replace persons now teaching under emergency authorizations. This h approximately one-third of the total Utah teaching force. In addition practically every school In the state is being operated with too few teachers to do the Job ratisfactorily. The average monthly wage of -11 workers in Utah f or the quarter ending Octol er 31. 1945, was $165 98 according to the Utah State Department De-partment of Employment Security. Converted to an annual bais. this would be an annual salary of $1,992. The average annual salary of Utah teachers for the year ending June 30. 1945 was $1,873. This salary was $119 beiow the average salary of all workers In the state. Unless something Is done immediately im-mediately many schools in the state will be unable to 0en for the 1946-47 school year. |