By SAM ZEFF

The number of teachers leaving Kansas or simply quitting the profession has dramatically increased over the last four years.

The annual Licensed Personnel Report was released Tuesday by the Kansas Department of Education. While it was provided to the Board of Education meeting in Topeka Tuesday, the report was buried in board documents and not addressed by either staff or the board.

The report shows that 1,075 teachers left the profession last year, up from 669 four years ago. That’s a 61 percent increase.

The number of teachers who left the state doubled in the last four years, from 413 in 2012 school year to 831 in the last school year.

“When you’re under attack almost continually and called lazy and overpaid and incompetent of course you’re going to leave the first chance you get,” says Mark Desetti, the top lobbyist for the Kansas National Education Association (KNEA). “It’s just shocking to me.”

The number of teachers who are retiring has also been steadily increasing over the last four years. In 2012, 2,084 teachers retired. Last year that jumped to 2,693. Still that’s a 22 percent hike.

While the state Board of Education did not discuss the report, which in past years has generally been part of the agenda, Chairman Jim McNiece talk about the growing problem of teachers leaving the state as the meeting opened.

McNiece told the board about a conversation he had with the chair of the Nebraska State Board of Education. “He wanted to say thank you to Kansas for sending so many teachers to Nebraska,” McNiece told his board colleagues. “Ouch. Big Ouch.”

Some educators have been worried about teachers leaving the state or the profession for a long time. “The trend started years ago but has clearly accelerated,” says Mark Tallman from the Kansas Accociation of School Boards (KASB).

The problem of teachers fleeing Kansas came to light a year ago when the Independence School District in Missouri bought two billboards touting open jobs in the district. Not only was there data on teachers leaving Kansas but data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) that showed the number of license applications from teachers with a Kansas address had doubled since 2011.

“We have spent out time in the Legislature tearing teachers down and then wondering why they don’t want to teach anymore,” says Desetti from KNEA. “We need to reverse that trend.”

State Rep. Melissa Rooker, a moderate Republican from Fairway, agrees that lawmakers are partly responsible. “You’ve got just this constant refrain in the Legislature from a certain faction that our schools are failing. That we need good teachers not all these bad teachers. They don’t have a right to their political voice,” she says. “It should come as no surprise that there’s a morale problem and an ensuing brain drain exodus.”

The state board did discuss a report from a blue ribbon panel on how to retain teachers in Kansas. That report was released last month and accepted by the board today.

It showed what the panel called a “greening” of the profession. Almost a quarter of all teachers in Kansas have less than four years experience and 40 percent have less than nine years in the classroom. The blue ribbon report also said that fewer students are majoring in education.

The panel made 60 recommendation including better pay, improved mentoring and just a general improvement in how teachers are treated in the state.

The Board of Education took no action on any of the recommendation. It created another committee to address the concerns.

All agreed it will take a statewide effort to improve teacher retention. “Local Chambers of Commerce, they’ve got a role to play. Community infrastructures and governments have a role to play,” says Ken Weaver, Dean of Emporia State University’s Teacher College and co-chair of the blue ribbon panel.  “There’s a lot of opportunity for partnerships. Lot of opportunity for relationship building.”

Sam Zeff  covers education for KCUR, which is a partner in a statewide collaboration covering elections in Kansas. Follow Sam on Twitter @SamZeff.

SALINE COUNTY – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 7p.m. on Saturday in Saline County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1998 Yamaha motorcycle driven by Michael J Becker, 46, Salina, was eastbound on 5th Street just east of Gypsum

The driver hit a chain fence at the approach of the city flood dyke that prevents traffic from going east.

Becker was transported to the hospital in Salina.

He was not wearing a helmet, according to the KHP.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — State documents show that thousands of Kansas government employees would face rising health insurance premiums under fee schedules developed for 2017.

The State Employee Health Plan administered by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment applies to workers throughout state government and includes people employed at public universities and colleges.

Under basic health policies available through Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas and Aetna, monthly rates for individual policies with low- and high-deductible plans would rise 9 percent. The monthly cost of health insurance for state workers in the employee-and-children plans would also increase 9 percent.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports rates for health insurance policies for full-time workers also increased during the 2016 year.

NOEL, Mo. (AP) — A 25-year-old Kansas woman has drowned in southwest Missouri.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reports Candi Srivisay of Olathe drowned in the Elk River in McDonald County late Friday.

The patrol says she was swimming in the river west of Noel when she became pinned to the base of a dam and drowned.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas court says parental rights should be terminated for a woman accused in 2012 of binding and blindfolding two of her children.

The Kansas Court of Appeals agreed Friday that Deborah Gomez’s parental rights should be terminated.

Gomez, and her husband, Adolfo Gomez, were arrested after police found two of their children blindfolded and bound with duct tape in a Lawrence parking lot. The couple said they were traveling from Illinois because they believed the world was ending. The children were taken into state custody.

Both parents later pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of endangering a child. Deborah Gomez served about six months in jail.

The Lawrence Journal World reports (https://j.mp/2beVtZj ) that the appeals court rejected her claim that she should have her parental rights restored.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A meeting between community members and Topeka police ended abruptly when participants yelled at the police chief.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports about 200 people attended the Friday meeting, which ended about halfway through the scheduled program.

Police Chief James Brown was interrupted as he read his remarks noting the police department’s efforts to engage with the community, touting community policing officers’ work and recent “coffee with a cop” events.

A man sitting at the back of the room laughed loudly and interjected comments as Brown spoke. A woman then also stood up and began yelling, while attendees asked her to calm down, and a man asked her to stop cursing.

A pastor appealed for calm, but finally announced the meeting had ended when order couldn’t be restored.

KANSAS CITY – A Kansas City man who was shot by police officers was sentenced in federal court this week for bank robbery and using a firearm in an attempted carjacking, according to Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Steven Marquain Davis, 30, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple to 12 years in federal prison without parole.

On Nov. 19, 2015, Davis pleaded guilty to bank robbery and to using a firearm during a violent crime (carjacking). Davis admitted that he used a simulated bomb to rob the Commerce Bank at 922 Walnut St., Kansas City, Mo., on Jan. 9, 2015. Davis entered the bank between 4:10 and 4:20 p.m. Davis, holding a remote control device, approached a teller counter and placed a black duffel bag on the counter. The remote control was described as having a red wire wrapped around it, similar in appearance to the remote used on remote control toys. Davis told the teller “gimme everything” and that “it’s” on the side of the building, which the teller believed referred to a bomb because of the remote he was holding. The teller placed $29,689 in the black duffel bag.

After Davis left the bank, he approached a 2012 Suzuki Grand Vitara on Petticoat Lane, mid-block between Main Street and Walnut Avenue. Davis pulled on the door handle and ordered the driver to open the door. When she refused, he pointed a handgun at her and again stated, “Open the door.” He began banging on the window of her vehicle with the handgun and she drove away from the area.

A witness confronted Davis in the street. Davis pointed a handgun at the witness and stated, “What are you looking at?” Davis tried unsuccessfully to get into two other cars in the area before multiple police officers arrived on the scene. Davis pointed a handgun at the officers, who then fired at Davis and wounded him before taking him into custody. Investigators collected $29,690, a remote device and a Smith & Wesson .38-caliber revolver from the scene where Davis was arrested.

FBI agents located a device that was designed to look like a bomb in the southwest area of the bank lobby. FBI and Kansas City, Mo., Police Department bomb technicians responded and rendered the device safe.

ANDOVER, Kan. (AP) — A construction worker has died after being electrocuted at a Kansas work site.

Authorities say 38-year-old Darrell Harden of Kansas City, Missouri, died Friday when he was working at a site in Andover.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration says he suffered fatal injuries when the lift truck he was operating came into contact with overhead power lines.

The Wichita Eagle reports  that when emergency crews arrived they found him unconscious, near the truck, with power lines on the ground nearby. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.