Some statewide tests in Texas, for example, have determined that a high percentage of teachers are not qualified to remain in the classroom. Other states are moving in this direction, i.e., testing teachers on a regular basis. The current unemployment rate of 4.2 percent, one of the lowest since World War II, can only make matters worse. Prospective teachers can easily find better-paying jobs elsewhere. A shortage of 100,000 teachers within five years has been predicted, and signs of it have surfaced already.
Idealism only buys so much for so long.
If this country wants to be proud of our educational system, there is a cost or, rather, an investment. In addition, low interest loans, similar to the NDEA loans that served to assist educators in the 1960s and early 1970s, should be reinstituted. These real incentives will make teaching a more attractive, competitive field and begin to ensure that top candidates will enter the field of education and stay there. But clearly we must. The alternative is to continue to rely on political rhetoric and threats to achieve success - a plan already viewed with skepticism and doomed to failure.