The Price of a Quality Education
Major changes in education are affecting thousands of teachers and over nine million school students.
Budget cuts and new federal guidelines for teacher credentials have thousands of teachers and staff out of schools, and students are taking the biggest hit. Poor kids in small rural towns are left to pay the price.
The new guidelines propose to require having teachers to hold a degree in every subject they teach. But in smaller school districts some teachers are teaching various subjects. Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn said the law has driven many teachers into retirement throughout the state.
Lawmakers who represent rural areas of these schools told Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education at a hearing this week that the administration have failed to take into account the problems of these schools and their students.
“There are lots of bright people at the Department of Education, and they work very hard,” said John Hill, executive director of the National Rural Education Association. “But because most have not grown up or worked in a rural area, they find it difficult to see how things work in remote districts.” (NY Times)
What are we to do? On one end we want our nation’s students to be receiving a quality education from qualified individuals. But is it worth forcing thousands of teachers out of work and millions of students out of an education?
For now Secretary of Education Arne Duncan can only promise to find solutions.
What are your thoughts? Do you think teachers should hold a degree to prove they are qualified in the subjects they teach? What about rural schools? Is there a happy medium?