Today, Newsweek asked people: "In 6 words, tell us your thoughts on the American educational system." I submitted: "Improving it will solve many problems."

I strongly believe that if we can improve our education system here in the United States, we can solve many of the problems we face as a nation and a world, avoiding financial crises, keeping more people from starving, responding quicker to disasters, bringing people together with open minds to move ideas forward and even preventing wars. We may still make mistakes and the world may still have its issues to deal with, but a better educated society is no doubt a solution to so much.

With all of this running fresh through my mind again today, I received the following in an email from an ABCTE colleague. It came from a Mississippi resident who is currently working in law enforcement and is a candidate in our Teach & Inspire Scholarship Program. Teach & Inspire recruits, prepares, certifies and supports individuals who want to teach in high-need schools and subjects in Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina.

He writes...

"In law enforcement I am responsible for taking people to court and incarcerating them. The stories I hear from the prisoners and the testimony I hear presented in court are closely related to education. Without exception, the people have failed to finish high school. I feel strongly that those people could have been saved if they had been encouraged to finish school. Some of them wanted to but had no one to encourage them. I want to teach so I can work with children and hopefully save some of those considering dropping out."

We need more of that right there! None of us—teachers, parents, students, anyone—should put up with hearing something like "summers off" as someone’s main motivation for wanting to be a teacher. Having the summer off is a nice perk for some in the teaching profession, but the story above—from an individual who wants to teach because they have seen firsthand what an education, or the lack of one, can do for people—that’s the kind of thing we need from more people if we’re to roll up our sleeves and truly move education forward in this country.

An application deadline for our Teach & Inspire Scholarship Program is coming up next Friday, March 19. If you or someone you know is determined to make a difference in the lives of students, please encourage them to apply online for a scholarship. We have a vision at ABCTE of making sure "every child has a great teacher" and every single great person we can recruit into our program takes us one step closer to making that vision a reality.

The next deadline to apply for ABCTE's Teach & Inspire Scholarship Program is fast approaching.

If you're interested in teaching in a high-need school and subject in Florida, Mississippi or South Carolina, Teach & Inspire provides accepted participants with a full scholarship and materials needed to become certified teachers through the ABCTE program. Once ABCTE certification is obtained, candidates are eligible for an additional $1,000 stipend for completing classroom observations.

Check out the video below and then you can apply for the scholarship online. The next deadline is Friday, March 19.

If you subscribe to the monthly ABCTE Circular email, then you may have read about this in the edition that came out last week.

We receive a huge response anytime we offer a discount on the ABCTE program and we’ve decided to try something new—-we will now hold special one-day sales, during which you can save $150 on an ABCTE enrollment.

Here's how the ABCTE one-day sales will work...

Every so often, we'll post a special discount code on both Facebook and Twitter and the code will be good for one day only. You'll be able to enter the code into the shopping cart on abcte.org, after you start the enrollment process on the Become a Teacher page.

Facebook and Twitter will be the only way to find out about these sales, so start following us now if you aren’t already. The first one-day sale will be in March--in fact it will be later this week!