Los Angeles — Leaving Las Vegas star Elisabeth Shue asked experts to explain why teachers are leaving Los Angeles. Shue moderated a panel discussion Tuesday (April 9) on California’s teacher shortage at the University of Southern California.

The dialogue followed a special screening of her husband Davis Guggenheim’s documentary The First Year.

Premiering on PBS last September, The First Year - narrated by Shue - follows five new teachers through the trials and triumphs of their first year in Los Angeles’s public school system. But, as Guggenheim revealed at Tuesday’s screening, Shue provided not only the narration, but also the inspiration for The First Year.

Guggenheim became interested in education in Los Angeles after Shue became pregnant with their first child.

“We were about to have a child,” he said, “and I started thinking about schools.”

Guggenheim grappled with a difficult question: “Do I send [my children] to a public school that is poorly funded and understaffed, or do I send them to an elite private school and turn my back on public education?”

Guggenheim’s search for an answer to this question inspired him to create The First Year, but his wife had some questions of her own Tuesday night. Shue, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, was concerned, yet casual in a gray cardigan sweater.

“I’d like to know just how severe the teacher shortage is,” she said.

Karen Gallagher, dean of USC’s Rossier School of Education, replied that “in the state of California we just don’t produce enough teachers.”

Gallagher added that the shortage is particularly severe in urban areas such as Los Angeles, where 30 percent of teachers leave the profession within three years.

Shue, whose son Miles is almost old enough to begin kindergarten, was attentive and engaged throughout the discussion, soliciting questions from the audience. She took her role as moderator seriously, but also revealed a sense of humor when a member of the audience began to speak without her permission.

Shue deadpanned, “Oh no, I’m in charge here.”