Education Budget Cut Solution

Every state is asking two critical questions right now; how do we increase our chances at Race to the Top funding and how do we find new ways to cut education budgets? The guidelines from the US DOE and a new study show that having non-university based alternative teacher certification is the answer to both questions.

The study on potential education budget savings for Tennessee done by Accountability Works looked at how much the state subsidizes university based course work for education school students. Since non-university based programs don’t receive a subsidy there can be substantial savings if more teachers come through these alternate routes. Based on the study, Tennessee could save over $121 million over 10 years if programs like ABCTE were producing more teachers and state education schools producing less.

As an added bonus, you meet one of the key requirements for Race to the Top Funding!

I am glad that someone like Accountability Works put this together. In these tough economic times, alternative certification is now more critical than ever in order to ensure that every child has a great teacher and the state can meet the new fiscal realities they are facing.