Of 25 different undergraduate study areas, students whose undergraduate major was education scored at the bottom or at best second from the bottom. Education majors supply not only teachers, counselors and administrators, but also professors of education and leaders of the education establishment. Sowell says professors of education rank just as low among college and university faculty members as education students do among other students. Neither is it surprising to find these people falling easy prey to fads and harebrained schemes. By 1981, when SAT scores hit bottom, a bit more than half of all teachers had master's degrees and less than 1 percent lacked a bachelor's degree.
Advanced degrees do more for teacher salaries than student proficiency.
The public-education establishment has a vested interest in the status quo that stifles competition. Competition produces winners and losers. Education majors have every reason to fear competition with other college graduates. They fear the weakening of iron-clad tenure rules and parental school choice. Professors of education, like their students, are also vulnerable.