(AgapePress) - The real problem isn't getting teachers into the classroom -- it's keeping them there. That's the finding of a report from a privately funded education advocacy group.

The National Commission on Teaching & America's Future (NCTAF) is a Washington, DC-based organization that wants to ensure that every school child has competent, caring, qualified teachers who are organized for success. The group says states are lowering standards and scrapping training in order to fill the teachers gap -- measures that end up driving teachers off.

Former North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt is chairman of the NCTAF. He says complaints about America's short supply of teachers miss the mark.

"Too many of us think that the problem is we don't have enough teachers -- that's wrong," Hunt says. "We have plenty of teachers in America. We are graduating enough teachers in most areas. The problem is we are not keeping them in the classroom."

Hunt cites statistics indicating that in the first three years, a third of teachers are dropping out of the profession; and in the first five years, almost half are dropping out. He likens the situation to pouring teachers into a bucket with a hole in it.

According to Hunt, working conditions at schools is what is driving teachers from the classroom.

"They don't have time for professional development. Many of them are treated like hired help -- they have to keep the lunchroom and maybe some of them have to be in charge of the bathrooms. They don't have phones, offices, clerical help -- we aren't treating these teachers like professionals," he says.

Hunt says the solution comes when every school finds out what they need to do to keep their good teachers.

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