Nationwide, student enrollment in colleges of education has plummeted over the past few years. This trend is playing out here in Indiana, with multi-year double digit enrollment declines yearly for the largest programs at IU, Purdue and Ball State. Not surprisingly, this has caused much worry among deans, whose first inclination has been to look outside their own halls for the problem. So, a plethora of news articles blame low teacher salaries and a general lessening of respect for teachers as root causes. That is hogwash.

I do believe teacher salaries are on the low side and could use a legislative boost. Still, low wages cannot explain the recent and rapid decline in enrollment in teachers colleges. In fact, public sector employees, including teachers, are among the few occupations to see wage growth over the past decade. The drop isn’t due to wages.

The debate over plunging enrollment often turns to the lessened respect the teaching profession has today. That is a convenient and emotionally fulfilling argument for someone in a teacher’s college, but it is also wrong. There are many pools of the most respected professions, and teachers always rank in the top ten and mostly in the top three. In contrast, teachers colleges have seen a drop off in enrollment that is greater than among military colleges during the height of the Vietnam protests. The notion that teachers have lost the respect of Americans is counterfactual nonsense.

There are two real causes for these declines.

Over the past decade, the educational reform movement has made great strides in eliminating the monopoly control of teacher licensing held by teachers colleges. Today, if you love history and want to teach history, then you can learn that history in an actual history department and still get a teacher’s license. The same is true for mathematics, English, economics, biology and other disciplines. This is why most professors in other disciplines welcome the enrollment decline in colleges of education.

The second big reason for enrollment declines is the end of the credentialed pay raises that marked the old teacher salary formulas. For many decades a master’s degree offered a pay boost no matter its content. Now teachers are paid for classroom performance, not extra degrees. That spelt doom for many graduate education programs that lacked rigor, relevance and a faculty that produced research.

It is worth noting that great graduate programs remain much in demand. Ball State’s nationally ranked early childhood education and autism programs, with first-rate faculty researchers, are two prime examples. The market for actual learning remains robust.

Still, there is good reason to expect that many colleges of education will disappear in the coming decades, replaced by a minor in education offered by a department. The only real problem with this is the surplus of tenured professors without students. What is certain is that the teaching profession—or calling—remains healthy, respected and more relevant than ever.

— Author’s Note 03/08/15: In my recent column on net metering I referred to ‘Indiana’s Community Action Coalition’ when I intended to write the ‘Citizen’s Action Coalition.’ The error was all mine, and I apologize to readers and members of both organizations for the mistake. —