Jeff Bingaman: “let me make another point--that requiring an academic major saves money. Let me show this second chart which makes this…”

“let me make another point--that requiring an academic major saves money. Let me show this second chart which makes this point, I think, very graphically. This chart makes the point that entry and retention rates of teachers of teacher preparation programs that allow beginning teachers to complete a major in their subject and require a firm grounding in teaching skills is substantially higher than those programs, the traditional programs, that only have education courses in them. For every 100 candidates who are just in teacher education, 3 years after they complete their education only 28 of the 100 are still in teaching. We are training 72 of the people out of those 100 candidates in teacher education who don't stay in teaching more than 3 years. Those are the programs where they don't have an academic major. In the case where they do have an academic major, if you start with 100 candidates, after 3 years 75 of those candidates are still in teaching. Mr. President, it is clear to me that this is a good deal for the taxpayer to give these people an academic background, keep them in teaching, and don't wind up spending a lot of money to train people who are going to drop out of the teaching profession very quickly. So I think it is very important that we try to do this. Teachers with academic majors feel significantly better, are better prepared for their work, and they are significantly more likely to enter teaching following their preparation.”