What frustrates me the most is that there are thousands upon thousands of bright, motivated recent graduates who want nothing more than to commit their careers to teaching. Many of these young people paid (and continue to pay) tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund their own education, but forwent ostensibly more lucrative majors and career paths in order to teach.
The facts of the matter are simple: Children who receive a decent basic education are generally going to contribute more to the U.S. economy and ask for less help from the U.S. government (financial bailouts not included) than those who have not had this basic need fulfilled.
Teach for America (TFA) had 46,000 applicants this year (1,688 Ivy Leaguers) for 4,500 openings. TFA accepts only a few of the best and brightest to work in some of the worst school districts in America. My guess is that of the 41,500 rejected applicants, the majority could be making a positive impact as a teacher somewhere. But the odds do not look good.
It would be naive to say that simply hiring more teachers will solve any problems. However, the fact that the U.S. spends somewhere around 10 times as much money on defense as on education would seem to say something about this country's current priorities. The top American students can compete with the best from any country, but we need all students to be better prepared to perform in an increasingly knowledge-based world.
I am no expert on education policy, but it seems to me that when we have a serious achievement gap and a wealth of capable young people who are passionate about teaching, someone ought to be able to connect the dots.
No comments:
Post a Comment