A question with a more obvious answer might yet be asked on national TV this morning, but someone's going to have to try very hard . . . On today's Morning Joe, during a segment on the Atlanta school-test scandal, Mike Barnicle actually wondered out loud why more top college grads take jobs with high-tech firms like Google, or in the financial-services sector, instead of teaching.
Barnicle had earlier declared that standardized tests don't teach kids how to think. Might Mike have taken one such test too many in his day? When Willie Geist gently pointed out the obvious to Mike—the difference in pay—Barnicle blubbered that he understood such was a given. So why ask? View the video after the jump.
Note: Mike might have found the answer at home by asking wife Anne Finucane why instead of teaching at the local public school she chose to take a job as a Bank of America executive.
MIKE BARNICLE: The standardized tests do a couple of things: they give teachers. They give teachers and school administrators a chart to follow to see: oh, is there progress being made in the class? They do not teach kids how to think . . . We've got to begin to address this issue, I would think as a nation. Why is it that so many really smart college graduates when they graduate from college go to work for Google or go to work for financial services institutions? Why don't they teach? What are we doing that doesn't make teaching a more attractive --
WILLIE GEIST: We're not paying them enough.
BARNICLE: I understand that. That's a given.
Note: in addition to the massive pay differential, here's another reason why top grads prefer high-tech jobs over teaching: Apple, Google, And Facebook Are Building Massive, Perk-Laden Headquarters
