Calling more teachers! Well, "some" teachers.

A week has passed since the State of the Union address and I am processing the education narrative Barack Obama etched out during the speech. As a state employee of a public 4-year college, I was eager to hear positive remarks about funding for K-12 and higher education. After all, education is the President's thing, right? I mean, have you read Dreams From My Father? This man believes in education! 

Maybe not. The President indicated that education was critical in order to "win the future," and even issued an eyes-forward, speak-into-the-camera plea to the young people of America to do something real and of value by becoming teachers. I was happy to hear the clarion call to education careers, until he said this: 

"And over the next 10 years, with so many baby boomers retiring from our classrooms, we want to prepare 100,000 new teachers (Hooray!)...

in the fields of science and technology and engineering and math." (Oh.)

What about the rest of the subjects? Why issue a call for 100,000 teachers, in light of the reality that so many educators will be retiring, only to replace that broad swatch of seasoned teachers with folks in science, technology, engineering, and math? What about art, literature, music, and history?  

Because it's not education that is most critical here; education is the vehicle by which the US is to get its swagger back. Our students have fallen behind many other countries in their test scores (which we all know are a totally accurate, unbiased and effective measure of knowledge and learning), particularly in math and science. So to regain status, we need to educate and pump out more scientists, engineers, and techies into our economy. Educate students in areas with market value. Recruit educators to teach those subjects. Undervalue academic areas of interest deemed to be without earning or production potential. Problem solved! 

In order to bring balance and stability to the economy and nation, Americans must make sure children are prepared to compete in a global marketplace that puts high value on science and technology. But, I grimaced when the President made that call for teachers, then underscored it with the notion that he only meant "some teachers." I was hopeful when Obama remarked that we needed to give the teaching profession the respect it deserves; disheartened when he provided not a single whisper of action as to how such value could be achieved. 

Don't pay lip service to teachers and educators, Mr. Obama. When you make a call for young people to become teachers, you've gotta tell them why it's worth their while. Because what our college students see (or at least describe to their career counselors) is that teaching is the "back up career." It's the path they will take if nothing more lucrative or impressive pans out. Teaching is what they'll do for a few years, before going to law school, or grad school, or a government career, or whatever. It's not typically a first choice, rarely the only choice. 

And why would they think anything else? The President wants students to become teachers of science, math, technology, and engineering, so that their students can go on and achieve success in those industries, earning more money and respect than teachers get? Where's the incentive for these future teachers? My guess is the idea that they'll be serving their country and teaching for the greater good isn't going to cut it when the economic reality for many students requires going deep into debt to get their degrees. It's hard to justify entering teaching making between $30-40K a year, when student loan payments may equal a full paycheck. 

Worse, I fear another possibility is more likely; that even if we increase educational outcomes for science and technology, our best and brightest won't follow those career paths. Instead, they'll do what I've observed at two institutions and in my 3 years of career counseling- apply for jobs with the biggest paychecks, mainly in finance and banking. Besides, many of those science and technology jobs will require much more than a bachelor's degree by the time this generation of students finishes college. Our economic downturn has made that a certainty. 

I say all of that to say this. There seems to be a fundamental disconnect between the realities of our education system and our economy. The President wants us to Race to the Top, but doing so implies that there will be winners and losers. Science and technology are the touted educational winners at this point in the dialogue, but I fear the end game may be a losing one for all of us.