It was one of the most depressing and scariest headlines, "Who wants to be a teacher? Not many in N.J., study says."

The accompanying story, summarizes the findings from the ACT college entrance exam organization, which noted that the number of high school students who want to become teachers has been decreasing dramatically, both nationwide and in the Garden State.

Just 4 percent of around 2 million high school seniors who took the ACT last year have said that they hoped to enter the teaching field. The talented young people available to guide tomorrow's generation into the future has become depleted. Moreover, the study revealed that this trend comes as the demand for teachers is expected to increase 14 percent by 2021.

In the most recent survey of annual salaries of new college graduates by occupation, Money Magazine ranked teaching dead last at $34,891, light years behind engineering ($64,891) and computer science ($61,321).

And while the median public school salary in New Jersey is higher at $53,404, bright and accomplished young people could earn far more in private industry over the course of a lifetime.

But weekly paycheck is also as important as that, especially when in a state with an impossibly high cost of living, there's more at play here. Most people don't prefer to go into teaching for the money.

The ACT report recommends a series of changes designed to make teaching more attractive like, programs to recruit more students, salaries commensurate with those of recent college graduates in other fields, more robust benefits.

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By Prakriti Neogi