My sister switched to teaching in her 30’s (after getting an MBA and working in business for most of her 20’s). Despite having a masters (MBA) she had to take 2 years of education courses and do a year of unpaid student teaching before she was credentialed for CA.

A good friend has a similar story. Worked sales and had a business degree, then went and got a teaching credential… it was a few years of education classes then a year of unpaid student teaching.

Both my sister and friend made the choice to give up better paying jobs specifically to become teachers. Some people love teaching, put in 80 hour weeks as teachers. They’re both type A type people. They put their all into teaching.

I can’t speak for other districts – but San Diego Unified is reducing the number of teachers. They’ve increased class sizes due to budget cuts and will likely be increasing sizes even more for the 2011/12 school year. What does that mean? They aren’t hiring new teachers.