The good news: There’s an uptick in the hiring of new teachers since the pink-slip frenzy in the wake of the Great Recession.

The bad news: The new hiring hasn’t made up for the teacher shortfall. Attrition is high and enrollment in teacher preparation programs has fallen some 35 percent over the last five years — a decrease of nearly 240,000 teachers in all.

Parts of most every state in America face troubling teacher shortages: the most frequent shortage areas are math, science, bilingual education and special education.