Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods at Southern Arkansas University Main Campus

Southern Arkansas University's teacher education program produces concerning results that place it near the bottom nationally, though debt levels offer a silver lining. Starting earnings of $37,590 trail both the Arkansas median by $2,200 and the national median by over $4,000. More troubling, graduates actually earn less four years later—a 7% decline when most careers show growth. This ranks the program in just the 23rd percentile nationally and 40th percentile within Arkansas, where top programs like University of Arkansas and John Brown University deliver starting salaries $5,000-$10,000 higher.

The one bright spot is manageable debt: at $16,316, graduates here borrow about $8,000 less than the state median and nearly $10,000 less than the national average. That creates a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.43, meaning first-year salary covers the debt burden about 2.3 times over. For a field notorious for low pay and high debt, keeping loans under $20,000 matters.

The fundamental question is whether avoiding debt justifies accepting significantly lower lifetime earnings. Teachers typically stay in their positions for years, so that $5,000-$10,000 earnings gap compounds substantially over a career. For students committed to teaching in Arkansas and focused on minimizing debt, this works. But families who can afford slightly higher borrowing should seriously consider programs like Harding or Ouachita Baptist, where graduates start $4,000-$5,000 ahead despite moderately higher debt.