Teacher turnover leaves void in U.S. schools

The commission has calculated that these days nearly a third of all new teachers leave the profession after just three years, and that after five years almost half are gone - a higher turnover rate than in the past.

Los Angeles has offered teachers signing with low-performing schools a $5,000 bonus. The district, the second-largest in the country, had hired only about 500 of the 2,500 teachers it needed by Aug. 15 but hoped to begin classes fully staffed, said Deborah Ignagni, chief of teacher recruitment

According to the most recent Department of Education statistics available, about 269,000 of the nation's 3.2 million public school teachers, or 8.4 percent, quit the field in the 2003-04 school year.

Thirty percent of them retired, and 56 percent said they left to pursue another career or because they were dissatisfied.