Thousands of beginning teachers started their careers on the first day of school this year, and at the current rate, two thirds of them will have quit within five years. Slowing that exodus might seem impossible during a recession when money is scarce for pay raises and equipment.

But recent research shows the quality of the school principals has more to do with teacher retention - and coincidentally, student performance - than any other factor, including pay. "When researchers conducted a lot of surveys about teacher departures, everybody thought it was money, but they were surprised it was not," says Kathy O'Neill, director of the Leadership Initiative Southern Regional Education Board.

Replacing teachers is a budget issue, though. It cost Georgia taxpayers nearly $60 million in 2001, steadily swelling to $400 million in 2005, the last year it was estimated by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission.

It's a cost other white-collar employers are already familiar with. Nationwide, educators resigned at an annual rate of 13 percent in 2008, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's better than the 17 percent rate for the field of finance or the 22 percent rate in real estate, but it's worse than the 8 percent rate of state and local government.

On the other hand, the reasons teachers stay were identified in a recent study published in the Journal of Teacher Education by three researchers from Georgia State University. Positive relationships between teachers and administrators, a diverse student population and a work environment that emphasizes academic achievement were the main factors.

The issues are things principals and district policies can control, experts say."The study is essentially about valuing teacher input," says Brian Lack, one of the Georgia State authors.

Gale Hulme, executive director of the Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement, agrees. "Most teachers stay in a school because of the leadership. They work for people. They don't work for schools."

Gov. Roy Barnes started the institute his last year in office. Since 2002, it has trained newly appointed 350 principals annually on modern approaches to leading a team of instructors. Gov. Sonny Perdue began requiring coaches to provide ongoing mentoring to the new principals.

As they replace the wave of retiring baby boomers, the new principals with their added indoctrination are shifting their job descriptions away from managing a campus to focusing more on improving academics, she says.

Says Hulme, What they are is leaders of other leaders, because that's what teachers are."

In other education news, representatives from local school boards will now have a chance to be heard before a new state panel votes on whether to overrule them. This week, the Georgia Charter Schools Commission voted to allow local school boards to submit written and brief oral comments when the commission considers granting a charter to applicants who had previously been turned locally. The commission had no formal mechanism for hearing from local boards when it approved its first batch of applications for charters in August.

"I would really like to hear the nub of the argument from the districts. That only seems fair," says Commissioner Charles Knapp, a former president of the University of Georgia.

Commissioner Jennifer Buck, a former aide to Gov. Sonny Perdue, says giving the local boards as much time as the applicants wasn't necessary.

"I'm less concerned about everybody having equal time. I just want to know why the district denied it," she says. "I'm not interested in mediating between the two."

The commission agreed to allocate 10 minutes to the local board from the hour-long session devoted to each applicant for a school charter. A new state law gives the commission authority to grant a state charter if local boards have denied an application.

The commission also has authority to withhold state funds that would have gone to the district and send the money instead to state-chartered schools that local boards refuse to fund. But the first two districts the commission has done that to filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the commission itself.

The comments will come during interviews conducted by a three-member panel composed of one commissioner, one staffer from the Georgia Department of Education and one member of the education community with professional experience evaluating charter schools. With 35 applicants awaiting consideration, the commission expects to be busy with interviews before voting on each application in December.

The decision to allow a say by local school boards came after Assistant Superintendent of Schools Andrew Broy told the commission that the interviews would not be open to the public. Keeping them confidential, he says, would allow for a more candid discussion and allow district representatives to give a more-frank assessment of local applicants than they would in a public setting.