A good education is one of the most important ways people can lift themselves up from poverty and improve their condition in life. It is one of the great equalizers in society. A career in education can put a teacher at the forefront of improving the future of generations of a community. Teach For America is a national group of recent college graduates who commit to teach for at least two years in urban and rural public schools to try and help close the achievement gap in education that plagues these underserved areas. "The math-science achievement gap is one of the most profound in separating low-income students in urban and rural schools from their counterparts in wealthier school districts," said Democratic Congressman Chaka Fattah, who has arranged for $15 million in funding for Teach For America. There are millions of teachers in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the growth in demand is keeping pace with the national average of 12 percent. By 2016, the bureau predicts there will be almost 2.5 million elementary and middle school teachers alone.  |