Bolling: Expand the Career Switcher Program

The answer to the teaching shortage in Richmond and other localities will not be found in traditional approaches. Certainly, higher pay, better benefits, and improved working conditions could help, but there just aren’t enough people these days perusing teaching as a career, especially in high demand fields.

However., there are a lot of career switchers – people nearing the end of their professional careers – who would love to give something back to their community by teaching. I know, because I was one of those people.

Unfortunately, the educational establishment has made it almost impossible for these career switchers, who have incredible knowledge and experience in various fields, to teach in the public schools. Unless you have a degree from an approved teacher education program, they don’t want you, even though they may desperately need you. I call it “educational elitism.”

If public schools are really interested in filling open positions and picking up some teachers who have tremendous practice experience that cannot be taught in a “teacher education program,” they need to do more to encourage career switchers and make it easier, not harder, for them to share their experience with students in the classroom. But they won’t, because “educational elitism” will not allow it.