Hmmmm..... EW says evidence is mounting that these programs amount to well, lets just say not a lot. It's funny because what I am paying and the cost to my family is well, a lot. As Mike once said "25K can buy a lot of beer!" I remember when I equated everything to the cost of beer. I was in the military and some friends of mine and I developed a currency exchange chart for the European countries we frequented to determine the countries who had the best beer exchange rate. I can make one very clarifying comparison in my current program, each hour i am in class costs me $66. If there are 24 of us remaining we are collectively paying $1584 per hour of class or $6336 per Monday night class or, $11088 per Saturday class(I only counted 7 hour---I gave them one for lunch).
Once we get past the point where Feistritzer gets to tell us that she heads the National Center for Education Information, she points out that 15 percent of all education degrees are conferred by just 25 institutions in the country. I wonder if this is the problem? If this is the "cash cow" of higher education that she is reporting, maybe some good old competition can get some serious teachers out into the field.
I guess the number that strikes me is that more than one in three teachers is getting ready to leave the profession. Why?
You raise a good point. If teacher education is expensive, and new teachers carry such a financial debt with them into the profession, why do nearly half leave at the five year mark? Is that when their debts have been paid?
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