Are there too many doctors?

All over the U.S., a chronic shortage of college teachers has turned into a surplus. At the annual convention of the American Historical Association last winter, 2,200 applicants squabbled over 402 openings—down from 550 the year before. At the University of Massachusetts this year, 1,000 would-be English teachers applied for eight jobs. One small West Coast college received 750 inquiries about a position in the English department, despite the fact that no opening existed. In Dayton, Texas (pop. 3,000), where the local high school has only 455 students, Principal Kenneth Almond has received job inquiries from 15 Ph.D.s in physics at universities across the country. "And yet," says Almond, "we teach only one elementary physics course to an average bunch of students."