UNC system President Erskine Bowles has ratcheted up the pressure on the campuses to produce quicker and better solutions to the state's public school teacher shortage.

He called the system's education deans together recently and told them he would make UNC's education schools his first priority under one condition -- that they take stock of their teacher-training programs and eliminate things that don't work.

Bowles called it a "Faustian bargain," referring to the legendary Faust who made a deal with the devil in exchange for knowledge. Bowles wants the deans to reallocate money from unproductive efforts into initiatives that would have major significance for the pool of available teachers.

"If you have a crisis, you have to treat it like one," Bowles recently told the UNC Board of Governors. "We have to lead. We can't act like things are going just like they always have."

The president warned that his plan would alienate people -- especially those who are the "godfathers and rabbis" behind programs that could get axed.

But, he said he promised the deans, "If you'll get your own house in order, I'll fight like the dickens to get you additional resources for those programs that could help us meet this enormous challenge we have."

North Carolina needs 10,000 new teachers every year. The state's public and private colleges turn out about 3,300 traditionally trained teachers a year, said Kathy Sullivan, director of the division of human resources management for the state's Department of Public Instruction.

Others enter the profession through alternative training programs. But each year, the state must hire half of its new teachers from outside North Carolina to combat a shortage caused by retirements, school growth, class-size reductions and teachers leaving the profession.

In 2004-05, the 15 UNC system campuses that have education schools produced 2,448 traditional education graduates and trained an additional 1,470 through alternative programs.

Pressure to improve

Before Bowles arrived, the UNC system had set a goal to increase the number of traditionally trained teachers by 60 percent by 2010. A report this month showed that UNC campuses had made progress, turning out 12 percent more teachers in 2005 than in 2004.

But the new president has clearly turned up the heat on education schools across the state.

Cathy Barlow, dean of UNC-Wilmington's Watson School of Education, said pressure is good.

"The focus is excellent," she said. "We all realize we've got a teacher shortage and we've got to work smarter with the dollars we have."

Barlow wants to develop a fast-track program in which students could graduate in three years with an education degree. She also thinks that the push from Bowles could make education deans feel empowered to take more risks with new ideas.

"Putting this to the forefront and putting it with accountability just might be a match for success," Barlow said.

Universities are likely to ramp up student recruitment and programs with community colleges. More online instruction may be offered. Successful programs on one campus may be duplicated at another.

Paying for it

The challenge will be whether schools can free up enough money to make dramatic changes. Education schools often rate low on the totem pole for resources on university campuses.

"It's not as if colleges of education are sitting around with coffers overflowing," said Charles Duke, dean of the Reich College of Education at Appalachian State University.

Money will be needed to attract college students to a field that carries an image of low pay and difficult working conditions, said Richard Thompson, the UNC system's vice president for university-school programs.

"We have to figure out a way to get more scholarships," he said.

Math and science

One major assignment will be for the UNC system to produce math and science teachers -- two of the state's greatest needs, Duke said. Chemistry, biology and math majors aren't lining up to get teaching credentials.

Duke said his school will look at whether it is doing enough to encourage those students and "make them understand that being a physics teacher is one of the best things they could do with their lives."

That could be an uphill battle. In the past four years, Bowles said, the UNC system has turned out only three physics teachers.

Some of that is because of the profession's low pay and working conditions, Bowles said. "And some of it is because, you know, we haven't really done our job. We gotta do better. We can do better."

The tough talk offers a glimpse of the kind of president Bowles will be. He joked recently that his style may seem out of place in the ivory tower.

"Being someone who's been accused of coming from an industry that's 'ready fire aim,' I sometimes felt I came to the industry that's 'ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim.' "

Joking aside, Bowles said he wants to see a sharper aim on teacher training -- with results.

"You have to shake it up. That's what we are trying to do."