As myself many of colleagues approach retirement (thus meaning old), I worry about the profession. I worry about teachers, students and the overall trend. We continually hear about there not being enough teachers. Today I read an interesting article "There Is No Teacher Shortage" and if you take the time to read it - I agree with it.
1) It is simply supply and demand - what schools want: great people at rock bottom prices is not achievable. Especially when the teaching profession has gone from highly respected to... well... what it is today. And it used to be a job where you would put in a career and your retirement was there - it was not great but it was consistent. And that too - it least in Wisconsin is gone.
2) So states lower standards so more people can be teachers - and eventually that will have an effect. In my opinion it will start in urban and rural areas because they have less resources - teacher cuts, teachers will move to the suburban schools... And the spiral will begin.
So the question becomes what now - will we react prior to the bottom or not. And it really comes down to one thing: Those brave people who become teachers should be able to have a middle class living after a short period of time and right now that is not the case.
Eventually this gap between job requirements and pay can only result in one thing - the standards equaling the pay. Meaning if it is not treated importantly, financially, it will become a second class job and our students will reap that prize.
If students are number one - the teaching career should be paid like it.
