Mamas, you just might let your babies grow up to be teachers.

The demand is coming back, in a way that threatens a crisis, according to a new study from the Learning Policy Institute of Palo, Alto, Calif. It projects a shortage of 100.000 teachers per year in the U.S. by 2025.

Prof. Dean Cantu chairs the Department of Teacher Education at Bradley University in Peoria.

“Now, more than ever, there is a tremendous demand for classroom teachers,” he says, adding it goes beyond specialties such as special education or English as a second language. “Now, we’re seeing that demand and that shortage in other areas, such as straight elementary education.”

Cantu – while he may be biased toward the program he oversees at Bradley – says the LPI study points to higher retention rates when the graduate is from a comprehensive teacher education program such as Bradley’s.

He says the difference between the better programs and the rest is, among other things, a variety of experiences, starting early, rather than waiting until a student is a senior and placing him or her into a student teaching assignment – by which time that student find he or she is no longer interested in education as a career.