Indiana legislative committee to study teacher shortage

A state legislative committee will look in to why Indiana is seeing a decline in number of people becoming teachers.

The state's Interim Study Committee on Education has scheduled an Oct. 19 meeting to study the issue, the Greensburg Daily News reported.

The Republican chairmen of the House and Senate education committees had asked General Assembly leaders to approve having the legislative education study committee review what is causing the drop and how the state could respond.

Indiana Department of Education numbers indicate the number of first-time teacher licenses issued in Indiana has dropped nearly 20 percent since 2009. That decline has some school district officials worried about being able to fill open teaching positions.