KU defeats South Dakota, 31-14, Sports 1B L A W R E NC E
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Marketing gig has own tricks of the trade
Latest report forecasts K-12 teacher shortage ____
Nearly a third of state’s public-school educators are nearing retirement By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com
my sofa, but I really didn’t want to. After all, where would I sleep? But then I came up with an idea. In my other job, the journalist gig, I sometimes hear grumblings, if you can imagine. I’ve heard a few
For the past several years, Kansas education officials have been poring over a set of numbers, almost like worried baseball fans watching their team fade out of contention in a pennant race. The numbers are in an obscure document called the “licensed personnel report,” and it breaks out, in excruciating detail, all the demographic data about the state’s K-12 education workforce. And those numbers do not show a promising trend. This year, according to the latest version of the report that was delivered to the Kansas State Board of Education in August, 31 percent of all the people employed as teachers in public schools are age 50 or over. That means they already have, or soon will have, enough points in the Kansas Public EmAs the babyployees Retirement System to retire. boomers retire, Officials also worry there are not as that if those teachers all retire as soon many people in as they’re eligible, the workforce.” there won’t be nearly enough new teachers — Scott Myers, head of coming out of colleg- the state’s teacher licenes and universities to sure division take their place. “Are we on the cusp of something, as far as a real, real need?” Scott Myers, head of the state’s teacher licensure division, asked rhetorically. “As the baby-boomers retire, there are not as many people in the workforce.” State officials, including Kansas lawmakers, have been fretting about those numbers for several years. But oddly, the concern eased temporarily during the last three or four years as the Great Recession actually helped delay the inevitable. “The recession has been a double-edged sword,” Myers said. “Actually, it helped with the teacher shortage in that, unfortu-
Please see SIGN, page 7A
Please see TEACHER, page 2A
Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photos
SIGN HOLDERS WAVE AND ADVERTISE for various business Wednesday at 23rd and Iowa streets. Some business owners swear by the practice, known in the advertising world as a type of “guerrilla marketing.”
Love ’em or hate ’em, hand-held signs are part of the city’s scenery
O
f all the things I learned by standing at the intersection of 23rd and Iowa last week trying my luck as a professional sign holder, the most painful lesson was that you need a tall stick to be in this business. I’m sure you’ve seen the sign holders on that corner. Some days there have been as many as six people there at once, each holding a sign for one of two competing furniture stores. I’m sure you’ve all driven through the intersection, U-Haul trailers in tow, to pick up ridiculously priced mattress sets and sofas. I know I have. The signs are hard to miss. But I never paid much attention to the sticks that hold
Lawhorn’s Lawrence
Chad Lawhorn
STANDING ON A MAT, as one sign holder does, can be a little easier on the feet than standing on hard concrete all day.
up the signs. They’re long, and now I know why. Simply put: A long stick allows you to prop up the sign and keep it from falling over. A short stick requires you to actually work to hold it up. I had chosen a stick that wasn’t tall enough,
but I was still going to try this sign-holding gig. Of course, being inexperienced and all, I didn’t even try to get a job with one of the furniture companies. I figured I’d go independent. But what type of sign to hold? I guess I could sell
clawhorn@ljworld.com
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Drug-related home invasions on the rise in Lawrence By Ian Cummings icummings@ljworld.com
Several times a year, Lawrence residents answer a knock at the door only to be assaulted by armed robbers demanding drugs, cash, or both. Very often, but not always, police say, the victims are drug dealers, typically college-age young people selling marijuana from their homes. In some cases, more aggressive
Humid
criminals who see them as easy targets beat them up. In others, people have been shot and killed. There are even cases where criminals force their way into a home after their intended target has moved away, leaving them to terrorize the current residents, who don’t have drugs or cash to give up. At least five home invasions have occurred in Lawrence since Decem-
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Not everyone is reluctant to call police after being attacked. The most recent home invasion was reported in West Lawrence on Aug. — Sgt. Trent McKinley, Lawrence Police Department spokesman 14. In that incident, two men attacked and robbed 19-year-old Payton Cumber, but police believe the property is itself illegal mings at the apartment he true number to be much and the victims don’t want shares with a roommate higher. Many are not re- to tell police the whole in the 2300 block of Wakarusa Drive. Cummings ported, said Sgt. Trent story. answered a knock at the McKinley, a Lawrence Podoor about 5 p.m. Two lice Department spokes- ‘It is a regular men barged in, struck him man, because the stolen occurrence’
It didn’t used to happen with that much frequency, and you’re seeing, more and more, firearms being used. That’s disturbing.”
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in the face, and threatened him with a handgun. The robbers left with a cell phone, a computer, and about $1,200 in music recording equipment. Police said they believed an unknown amount of marijuana was also stolen, but Cummings declined to comment about that. He did say he was initially hesitant to report the robbery to police
Permanent fixture Chamber officials announced that the new education center they plan to build will be named in honor of an area labor leader. Page 3A
Please see INVASIONS, page 10A
Vol.155/No.251 32 pages