Western Governors University

[IrishJohn]

There might be a few career training loans left out there if you have decent credit. I think Sallie Mae and Wells Fargo still offer them. You could use it to just fund the Career Switcher Program.

I'm considering this as one option. Another might be to enroll in graduate school and take out a bigger loan, say $4,000 worth, than I actually need in order to also pay for the Career Switcher Program.

It might be tough getting a social studies job though. The largest school district in my county does not accept alternative teacher certifications. The second largest school district will only accept them if the person is certified in science, mathematics, ESL, special education, technology, or family and consumer sciences. Those are their high need areas. The poorer school districts accept them, but they're also focused on mostly hiring math and science teachers. Nationally, most of the shortages are in math, chemistry, and physics.

According the "critical needs" areas of the program, social studies is one subject they are short of teachers on. I'm sure it isn't as bad as math or science, which are almost always lacking in enough teachers, but I did notice that it wasn't among them last year while it is now. I also know that we are short of teachers in this state which is why our governor is calling for expansion of Teachers for America here. Even so though, I've already been planning on hedging my bets by taking the English Praxis in addition to that for Social Studies. The program itself isn't geared towards a specific subject but is more general. I may add another endorsement later if I feel I need it. Perhaps Spanish.