Fewer pursuing teaching careers and other news from areas around Chattanooga

Fewer pursuing teaching careers

ATLANTA Data from a Georgia education commission shows fewer people are pursuing careers as teachers.

More than 12,400 people earned teaching certificates during the 2007-08 school year, according to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission. The number dropped to about 8,520 two years later and has been roughly the same since then.

Southwest Georgia Regional Education Service Agency Director Tim Helms says there's a significant need for teachers in the science, technology, engineering and math fields, as well as principals and educators from minority backgrounds. Helms says finding teachers is more difficult in rural areas, partially because of compensation concerns.

Republican State Rep. Amy Carter says aside from pay, some teachers leave the profession because of quality of life issues and lack of support from school administrators.

Deadline set for oil spill claims

NEW ORLEANS People and businesses who lost money because of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill have until June 8 to file claims.

The deadline doesn't apply to seafood-related businesses. BP PLC made separate settlements for medical claims and for seafood-related business claims.

A notice last week on the claims center's website says the deadline for other economic loss claims is six months from Dec. 6, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear BP's appeal.

The London-based oil giant argued that lower courts misinterpreted settlement terms, putting BP on the hook to pay inflated and bogus business claims.

According to the claims office website, more than 203,000 claims had been submitted by Friday. That includes nearly 89,700 businesses claiming economic loss.

Company plans to rebuild plant

ROME, Ga. The manager of a steel wire manufacturing plant that was burned in a large industrial fire says the company will rebuild and is planning technology upgrades for the new plant.

Bekaert plant manager Gary Downey told the Rome News-Tribune that engineers are designing a new section to replace part of the plant that was destroyed in a mid-November fire. Demolition of the damaged portion is underway. The company's human resources manager has said the fire began with a piece of machinery and eventually spread to the ceiling.

Rex Rains, president of a local union that represents hourly employees at Bekaert, says about five of the plant's employees are still out of work.

Downey says he expects the new section of the plant to be completed by March.

Upcoming Events