Michigan’s public schools may be increasingly relying on its youngest and among the oldest teachers to educate the state’s 1.4 million K-12 students, according to the latest workforce retention data tracked by the state .

The Michigan Department of Education released at the end of October updated retention numbers for school workers, including teachers, administrators and support staff, for the 2024-25 school year.

The number of teachers in Michigan has increased in the years following the coronavirus pandemic, going from roughly 79,708 teachers in 2020-21 to 82,014 last year, and an MLive.com review of the data shows much of that increase was among educators in their 20s and over age 50.

However, the percentage of teachers mid-career with a decade or two in education under their be

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