The cost of certification - part 2

Having looked around a bit more, I've found an alternative certification program that fits my needs best. It still runs about $15,000 for the program, but it consists of 8 weeks of courses and intense preparation in the summer, followed by a year of teaching at a local high school, during which I'll be evaluated by a mentor teacher and the staffers of the alt cert program. If things go well, I get certified to teach in Illinois after that first year in the classroom. Importantly, I'll get paid a regular salary during that year, so I only have to figure out how to go 8 weeks without salary in the summer.

About that: I've decided to aim for the classroom in the fall of 2012, rather than 2011. This is so my wife can get good and settled in a new job in the fall of 2011 (anyone looking for a fantastic 8th grade science teacher???), and we can save some money for my certification and the lean months before I begin teaching. It means another year before I start teaching, and I hate that. But it makes the economic end of things so much more do-able.

From a bottom-line standpoint, the $15k for the program isn't simply exorbitant, it's insane. Paying such a hefty sum for the "privilege" of drastically reducing one's income just doesn't compute. Comparatively though, the price seems like a good deal. As already mentioned other (traditional) programs require more time without salary and cost as much or more in tuition. However, considering that teaching is a calling - that this is something I feel deeply that I want to (and must) do - $15k isn't going to stand in my way.

On balance, if the only things to be said in favor of the cost of certification pertain to my own personal commitment to the process and the relative (but still extremely high) cost of competing programs, I suppose it's an indication that something else is seriously broken with this system. I mean, how many talented teachers have abandoned the idea of teaching because the first-order economic analysis indicated that it would be extremely foolish to follow this path?