It’s too early to say for sure, but a few observers believe public schools could be the beneficiaries of a brainpower shift from the trading floors of Wall Street and the hedge funds of Greenwich, Connecticut, to classrooms nationwide.
New York City’s Teaching Fellows program, which trains career-changers to work in city schools, saw the percentage of applicants listing “finance” as their current job rise to 10 percent this fall, up from 6 percent in 2006. At Teach For America, the prestigious program that taps graduates at top universities, the percentage of trainees who majored in business has grown to 10 percent as well. “The turmoil in the market, I think, has opened up a lot of possibilities for people in terms of options they would consider professionally,” says Elissa Clapp, who directs their recruitment.
A large shift to teaching is by no means a sure thing. For one, the meltdown is forcing school districts to cut costs. But many say it could end up having an effect similar to that of the aftermath of 9/11, which drove thousands into teaching and other service careers. In 2002, for instance, Teach For America saw applications nearly triple. “These big moments—and I think September 11 was the last big moment—cause people to look for work that has meaning to them,” says Tom Daly of the New Teacher Project, which recruits teachers nationwide.
The “silver lining” in the rush of business and finance professionals into teaching careers is not only that “your child’s next math teacher could be an absolute whiz,” as a recent USA Today article suggests, but also that an influx of talented professionals and other experts into our classrooms could be the key in helping to solve a teacher shortage crisis. One in five teachers in the U.S. will retire in the next five years, but our nation’s colleges of education—which have been the pipeline providing our schools with new teachers—are no longer producing educators at the rate they once did.
If more states begin accepting larger numbers of talented, well-qualified teaching candidates graduating from rigorous alternative certification programs and more people make the rewarding career change to teaching, we might find that our teacher shortage crisis and rising unemployment problems are partial solutions for each other. This win-win situation could deliver huge gains for the most important elements in all of this: our children and the future of our country.
—“Financial Sector’s Loss Could Spell Gain for Teaching,” USA Today, Oct. 16, 2008.
