Another thing educration and liberalism have in common is hysteria, hysteria not for its own sake, but to push an agenda. Liberalism has given us overpopulation! (remember back in the 70s how "the scientific consensus" was that we were all going to starve to death by 2000?), ice age!, we’re going to run out of oil! (we still hear that one–they just keep shifiting the year up every time it doesn’t happen, like the second-coming groups), obesity! (this is only on the days when we’re starving to death because of evil Rethuglicans! isn’t the hysteria of choice), chemicals!, silicone breast implants!, powerlines cause cancer! (that was no doubt fed by the 100% founded on bullshit Erin Brockovich), DDT! (speaking of things based on bullshit, in this case, on nothing whatsoever but a book with no research behind it, just sobbing about not hearing birds), three mile island! (not a single health issue ever arose from it), and now global warming! climate change! The "higher-order thinking" educrats also run around screaming their heads off about the latest, greatest disaster–and lately, the teacher shortage! we’re running out of teachers! teachers are leaving the profession! squeal has been getting a lot of airtime on the edusphere.
Let’s check that, shall we? First, let’s look at the number of bachelor’s and master’s degrees awarded nationally in education from 1994-2004, according to the Department of Education:
|
Year
|
Bachelor’s
|
Master’s
|
|
1993-94
|
107,440 | 97,427 |
|
1995-96
|
105,384 | 104,936 |
|
1996-97
|
105,116 | 108,720 |
|
1997-98
|
105,833 | 113,374 |
|
1998-99
|
107,086 | 118,048 |
|
1999-00
|
108,034 | 123,045 |
|
2000-01
|
105,458 | 127,829 |
|
2001-02
|
106,295 | 135,189 |
|
2002-03
|
105,790 | 147,448 |
|
2003-04
|
106,278 | 162,345 |
And for the numerically challenged, here it is charted:
The number of bachelor’s degrees awarded is fairly stable–not rapidly declining, as the hysterics scream. Note, however, that the number of master’s degrees is significantly increasing. That doesn’t indicate droves of teachers leaving the profession (hint: people who are leaving the profession don’t pay to get MAs). That indicates that an increasing number of teachers are entrenching themselves in the profession, quite the opposite of the disaster du jour.
But surely, education must be suffering, right? I mean, they can’t get this teacher shortage stuff from nowhere, can they? Let’s look at the five fields that awarded the most bachelor’s degrees in 2003-2004. Education has to be at the bottom somewhere.
|
Discipline
|
2003-04
|
| Business | 307,149 |
| Social sciences and history | 150,357 |
| Education | 106,278 |
| Psychology | 82,098 |
| Visual and performing arts | 77,181 |
Hmmmm. Education is number three, after only business and the social sciences. How about master’s degrees?
|
Discipline
|
MA
|
| Education | 162,345 |
| Business | 139,347 |
| Health professions and related clinical sciences | 44,939 |
| Engineering | 32,698 |
| Public administration and social services | 28,250 |
There are more master’s degrees awarded in education than any other field. Here’s the chart:
In fact, of the fields that customarily award bachelor’s degrees (some fields, such as law, do not), education is the only one that offers more master’s degrees than bachelor’s degrees. Education schools churned out 162,345 master’s degrees in 2003-2004, and the number of bachelor’s degrees have remained stable–not to mention the fact that only two fields churn out more bachelor’s degrees than education. So no, education is not suffering, new teachers are not declining in numbers, and teachers are not leaving the profession in droves.
Let’s retire this particular Chicken Little nonsense, shall we? Thanks.
Other education articles here.
