Borsuk has an interesting article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today.

According to a report from the respected RAND Corp. think tank, widespread shortages of qualified teachers loom nationwide unless major changes make teaching an attractive career choice for talented individuals.

That report was issued in 1984.

A few days ago, the Learning Policy Institute, a non-profit based in Palo Alto, Calif., issued a report, “A Coming Crisis in Teaching? Teacher Supply, Demand, and Shortages in the U.S.” It warned that unless major changes occur, the supply of teachers nationwide will fall substantially short of the number of teachers needed within a few years.

An education gadfly and writer named Mike Antonucci drew attention to the similarities in the two reports, including that Stanford Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, one of the most prominent figures in American teacher education, was an author of both. (By the way, she is likely to be on the short list of candidates for secretary of education if Hillary Clinton is elected president and she was honored last spring by Alverno College.)

In the years after 1984, the number of kindergarten through 12th grade teachers of all kinds increased nationwide and no real shortages appeared.