This is something I was thinking about (emphasis past tense). The nation currently has a science education crisis; namely our students are dumber than dirt and getting worse, particularly in science. However, the U.S. has alot of PhD holders in critical areas, including biology.

But the route to teaching is difficult; you can get a job as a adjuct teaching community college and hope to gain enough experience, but you won't make enough to live on.

You can hope to get a 'real job' professorship at a university, but the number of applicants is vastly more than the number of positions.

You could go teach at public schools, but that requires a teaching degree and certification; the last thing a PhD holder wants to do is go back to school at the bachelors level.

Then there's the money; w/ a PhD you can expect to start earning 40k per year. That's nice, but postdoc stipend for first year, according to NIH guidelines, is about 35k. Not much difference, and don't forget the extra training required to be a public school teacher.

The article mentions that 0.8% of PhD holders are public school teachers, but the amount interested in teaching is much higher. So there is an issue; the certification barriers and the salary are probably the biggest challenges.

My thinking is that I personally could aspire to more than a public school teacher. I earned my degree and feel public school teaching to be a possible letdown.