In any cycle, there can be serious consequences when something gets out of whack.
Imagine, for example, if something went wrong in the water cycle and the rain stopped coming down. That kind of system would likely just leave us in a desert with never-ending record temperatures …
But a broken cycle in the education system has been tolerated for far too long, and now U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is trying to get us back on track.
The education cycle right now looks like this: Baby boomers are retiring and new jobs are opening up in a field where workers are underappreciated, underpaid and preaching to students who are underperforming (only 32 percent of eighth graders read at their grade level). And even with retention rates on the rise at ASU, Duncan said the U.S. dropped from having the most college graduates in the world to ranking ninth, just in the exchange of one generation.
Duncan’s new TEACH campaign aims to recruit 1 million new teachers in five years with the $400 million in grants recently pushed aside in the education system.
The campaign is focusing on recruiting math, science and special education teachers as well as the specific recruitment of minority males.
Duncan is calling the impending teacher shortage the “civil rights issue of our generation.”
Teachers are often burdened with buying their own classroom supplies and are underappreciated in their communities. While this is something many teachers take in humble stride, the nation is beginning to fray at the edges with infamously low test scores and heightened dropout rates.
The cycle of education is greatly affected by dropout rates, which Duncan said constitutes nearly 1 million high school students each year anyway.
Duncan’s plan addresses some of the greatest concerns that have befallen the profession, such as low salaries — averaging around $39,000 a year in Arizona, but with a starting salary of $28,000.
Other monetary perks include access to grants for taking on different working conditions such as in impoverished areas, but most importantly, an “income-based repayment” that would guarantee college debt to be forgiven after teaching for 10 years.
This plan could provide a much-needed monetary and moral boost to build up the teachers’ lounge morale and advocate for the prestigious civil servants, protectors of knowledge and guides from childhood to the real world.
However, the funding works on a rewards system and is based on students’ test and achievement scores, which is disliked by many teachers and people involved in the education system.
What goes around comes around.
We can only hope Duncan’s plan refreshes the pool of knowledge, excites younger generations to start looking cloud-ways and brings out the greatest educational potential they can muster.
It’s time to strengthen our citizens, and that begins with those who teach.
