I’ve just read a piece in the New York Times about the stiff competition among Ivy League graduates for a berth in Teach for America, a program designed to recruit and train teachers for poor, urban schools:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/education/12winerip.html?scp=2&sq=education&st=cse>
When Ivy League grads will settle for a first year teacher’s salary- even if salaries of 50,000 are not unheard of- the economy must be a lot worse off than I thought. If many Ivy League graduates are unable to find work- any work, apparently- I’m really afraid for America. It’s not that I have a special concern for Ivy League graduates, but that their plight begs the question: what’s happening to all of those kids from colleges all over the country who borrowed to finance a costly education, if they can’t find work?
Students graduating in Education right now are facing workforces that have been depleted already by lay-offs. News of state and municipal cuts squeezing educational budgets is frequent- and education is always among the first items on a budget to be cut. I can only shake my head, and worry when I think of the consequences of educational budget cuts.
It seems a no-brainer that kids who have to endure ‘”teaching to the test,” in the name of educational efficiency are learning less now than they ever did. But when school budgets are stripped of all programs that are considered extras, for example, music and art- not to mention languages, and social studies, students lose.
I wonder why we can subsidize big oil, big pharmaceutical companies, big banks- but we can’t find money for education, and we can’t extend unemployment benefits. Reading about the inequities in America is both discouraging and infuriating.
Then there’s the matter of the growth spurt of the super-rich. Apparently, the gap between rich and poor is wider now than at any time since 1929. http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/record-us-income-gap-growing-again
What will it take for Americans to wake up? Perhaps, because of the enslavement of our elected officials in Washington by moneyed interests, we’ll never have the kind of government that actually acts in the interests of the populace, but I’ll keep looking for signs. Who knows? It could happen.
my son jake and i read the posts: we laughed, we cried, they became a part of us. seriously,we both enjoyed reading your initial entries. keep up the good work.