You may not want to pursue teaching part time, however, if your motivation is mainly financial.
Both want the federal government to help finance the college education of people who pursue teaching careers.
The bill also encourages graduate students to pursue teaching careers in those same subjects by offering them fellowships.
On his return, he finished high school and college in programs from Ecuador to Japan to Long Island and won a Fulbright scholarship to pursue teaching methodologies.
Partly as a result of this declining regard for public-school teachers, the number of people pursuing teaching credentials has dramatically fallen.
The tests involved are known as Praxis exams, and more than 300,000 were administered last year by the nonprofit Educational Testing Service for people pursuing teaching licenses or new credentials in specific subjects like biology or history.
Some education officials fear that too many of the new teachers are like Mr. Regan, people who are pursuing teaching only as a temporary measure and will most likely seek better-paying jobs once the economy improves.
But Mr. Cross said the money would be better spent on loan forgiveness programs for teachers who took out student loans, since there is no way to ensure that the students who get the scholarships actually pursue teaching careers.
