The hiring rate for educators with an undergraduate degree in the D.C. area is 95-98 percent. In Prince George s County, for example, 1,500-1,800 educators were hired in the last year alone, Wineberg said. Even in areas where jobs are harder to come by, school systems have hired thousands of teachers. According to figures released by the National Center for Education Statistics, an estimated 3.3 million elementary and secondary school teachers were engaged in classroom instruction in fall 2000. Teaching is such an important profession because it influences the ideas of children, Kelly Costello, a math and secondary education major at AU said.
Teachers have a very special responsibility to society as a whole.
Increases are expected in the numbers of both elementary and secondary teachers in both public and private schools, NCES s Projections of Education Statistics to 2010 reported. The number of teachers in public elementary and secondary schools increased from 2.21 million in 1985 to about 2.83 million in 1998, an increase of 28 percent. Officials estimate the teaching profession will grow to 2.94 million by the year 2010, increasing at an average annual rate of 0.3 percent. Lower estimates average 2.87 million and high figures anticipate 3.01 million. Private school teachers was estimated at 391,000 in 1998 and by 2010 will reach 402,000 to 422,000.