(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
So college students have lost interest in Education Majors:
Several states face very large increases in their youth populations projected by the Census Bureau:
Some states are already experiencing growing teacher shortages, and some traditionally minded folks dream of spending our way out of this, but absent some awesome spurt of sustained economic growth this seems implausible given things like this that come with an aging population:
So student populations project to grow even while the traditional pipeline for teachers shows increasing spare capacity and Baby Boomer teachers retire and states face increasing fiscal strains. Did I miss anything? No? Good- that’s already gratuitous.
So rather than worry about this, perhaps it is best to view it as an opportunity. It’s not like the old-fashioned way of training teachers had much good to say for itself after all:
College students losing interest in ed majors hints at a broader need to re-imagine the teaching profession more broadly. The status quo is sinking, but a future of a smaller number of higher paid teachers leveraging technology to teach a greater number of students to higher average levels may be possible.
Keeping things the way they are now is neither desirable or possible.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 