Angela Bontrager is one of the new teachers this year at Wawasee Middle School. She teaches seventh-grade math.

SYRACUSE — A legislative study committee will convene in October to find answers to a problem Indiana is facing with a shortage of newly licensed teachers. But ask Dr. Tom Edington, superintendent of the Wawasee Community School Corp., and other administrators, and they likely already know what the committee will find.

The numbers do not lie. Fewer students are entering colleges with the intent of becoming school teachers. Indiana Department of Education issued 63 percent less licenses to first-time teachers between the 2009-10 and 2013-14 school years. For yet another example, enrollment in Ball State University’s College of Education has dropped 45 percent in the last 10 years.

A combination of less funding to public schools in Indiana, reduced teacher pay and the increasing emphasis with tying in pay to evaluations and student test scores, along with negative publicity has made teaching a less attractive career.

Locally, the shortage has not affected Wawasee to the degree it has in some districts where even substitute teachers were put in classrooms to start the school year. But it has still affected Wawasee. The candidate pool for teaching positions, particularly math and science, has decreased the last few years. Positions that used to have 20, 30 or even more applicants now may have eight to 10 at the most.

Of the 23 new teachers hired for the Wawasee corporation this year, some were not fully licensed and a few have a college degree, but not in education. They are allowed by the state, though, to be in classrooms through either an emergency permit or the transition to teaching program until they complete licensing.

Edington noted Wawasee has been fortunate because of its location and not just because of the nearby lakes. “We are close enough to larger cities like Fort Wayne or South Bend where you can still get the big city amenities,” he said.

Pay is important when considering teaching as a career, but it’s often not the most important factor. “You go into teaching because you have a head and a heart for kids and you want to make a difference with young people,” Edington said.

But in Indiana, there are many obstacles for teachers to deal with. Especially since 2009, “the state shut off the tap to public schools,” he said, when it comes to funding. This year was the first year since 2009 Wawasee has seen much of an increase in state funding and the trend has been for the state to increase funding to charter schools and for vouchers, he added.

Many teachers also feel the state is not treating them like professionals by, for one example, pushing for allowing teachers to be hired who don’t know how to teach but have expertise in a given career field. Edington emphasized teaching is a science in itself and not everyone is gifted to do it.

Negative publicity is another factor. Some teachers feel they get blamed excessively by politicians for problems in public education.

Even for seasoned teachers, Edington noted the future can be scary because teachers are paid based on evaluations, a part of which is based on student test scores.

He added the problem will likely only get worse as fewer graduates come out of colleges with a degree in education.