Half of the teachers working in American classrooms today could retire over the next decade, according to a reportfrom the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy group based in Washington, DC.

Because many teachers today are near 50, and because the median age for teacher retirement is 56, the group predicts a steep falloff of teaching professionals as this generation of boomers heads into retirement.  Many principals are also boomer vintage and will retire  in the coming years.  (See their graphic on page 2 for a stark imageof an aging profession.)

The report additionally cites declining demand for education, as the overall proportion of families with children continue to fall to new lows in the nation's demographic mix.  What this fortells for New York City is uncertain -- but steady teacher attrition might be compounded if a generation of teachers elects to exit the classroom.