College professor James D. Miller makes the argument that we should also start outsourcing teaching:

Outsourcing hasn’t gone far enough: the U.S. should start using Indian-based teachers. Smart, inexpensive, English-speaking Indians already help Americans with software design, computer support and tax preparation. Through satellites and the Internet workers in India can be connected, with mere millisecond delays, to Americans in need. Outsourcing jobs to India has saved Americans billions while actually increasing the quality and competitiveness of many of our industries. We should now apply outsourcing to education, the American industry most in need of improvement.

Like most teachers, I find grading to be the least interesting aspect of my job. I would gladly teach extra classes if I could in return be freed from the drudgery of grading. My employer, Smith College, should hire a few score smart Indians to grade for their faculty and in return Smith should expect its professors to spend more time in the classroom.

High schools should similarly outsource their grading to Indians. Because U.S. teachers find grading so mind-numbingly boring, outsourcing grading would make teaching a far more attractive profession, thereby allowing high schools to recruit better teachers without necessarily having to increase salaries.

I suspect that Indians would do a far better job grading than U.S. teachers currently do. Because of their much lower average standard of living, earning a few dollars an hour grading American school assignments would be a fantastic job for many talented Indians. Indians would therefore bring an enthusiasm to grading that most American teachers, including myself, lack.

Indians, moreover, could do more than just grade papers. They could run entire classes. Online college courses such as those offered by the University of Phoenix show the possibility of teaching via the Internet, and teenagers’ love of video games proves that students are capable of long-term thoughtful interactions with their computer. High schools and colleges should use the Internet to have some of their classes remotely taught. The teachers would have audio and video connections with their American students. It would be prohibitively expensive to hire one American teacher for every five students. But because wages in India are so much lower than in the U.S., schools could afford, say, 5:1 student: teacher ratios if they outsourced education.

Of course, teachers in India wouldn’t be able to discipline their American students, so the outsourcing would only work for well-behaved students. But students with Indian teachers could benefit from large amounts of individual “face” time with their instructors. Low student / teacher ratios would also allow schools to offer a diversity of classes that they couldn’t afford without using outsourcing.

High school math and science programs would greatly benefit from outsourcing. Because American adults with strong math and science skills have very good job prospects, it’s difficult for high schools to attract strong teachers in these fields. But for wages far below what even high school food service workers make, very talented and technically proficient Indians would love to become teachers.

If Indians weren’t permitted to teach entire classes, they could at least act as tutors or teaching assistants. Every high school math teacher, for example, could be given an Indian helper who would be available from 5-10 pm each night to help students with their homework. To prevent any child from being left behind, schools could give students in danger of failing two hours of individual tutoring time with an Indian teacher each weeknight. And at the other end of achievement gifted students could be assigned tutors who would facilitate their exploration of advanced topics….

Some of the best minds on the planet are trapped in poor countries, currently doomed to a miserable standard of living. But through educational outsourcing U.S. schools could directly tap these minds employing them to teach our children. Such outsourcing would not only lift many third world people out of poverty but also help the U.S. grow her 21st century knowledge economy.

Update: Looks like this is already happening. From the Wall Street Journal ($$):

Enter the next phase of outsourcing: online math education. Not only does the U.S. increasingly lag behind other countries on international math scores, it’s also short of qualified math teachers. This could make it tough for America to improve its grade and retain the competitive edge that keeps good jobs at home.

Into the breach step a handful of Indian companies like Career Launcher India Ltd., which provide math tutoring through two U.S. online tutoring companies and directly to students like Ms. Basu.

These tutoring services have found a business opportunity: American 15-year-olds ranked 24th among 29 industrialized countries in a study of math skills released last year by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Plus, as school enrollment surges and baby boomers retire, the U.S. faces a teacher shortage, particularly in math and sciences. Nearly 40% of U.S. high schools reported difficulty filling math openings this year with qualified instructors, according to the American Association of Employment in Education.

Career Launcher’s software allows teachers and students to talk to each other during the live session. Teachers also use a tablet PC to draw diagrams and formulas to help explain the lesson or answer questions. They can see each other through a live feed using a Web camera.

The company started in 1995 as a tutoring service and now helps more than 30,000 Indian students. Most are teenagers who turn to Career Launcher to help cram for entrance exams for the country’s prestigious engineering schools. In 2000, Intel Capital, a venture-capital arm of Intel Corp. took a stake in Career Launcher valued at just under $1 million. Around the same time, Career Launcher started marketing its services in the Middle East, targeting the children of expatriate Indian professionals who flock to the region for work. The company tutors close to 20,000 students there — with a large portion of its business in the United Arab Emirates.

In 2003, Career Launcher founder Satya Narayanan struck a deal with a U.S.-based online tutoring company, and eight months ago, signed up with a second one. (Both require Career Launcher to keep their names private under terms of the contract.) Teachers now coach students throughout New Delhi’s day and night.

Career Launcher has taught about 800 U.S. students online in the past 10 months. About 50 of those signed up directly after finding Career Launcher in an Internet search; the rest are outsourced by the two companies it works with. Career Launcher now plans to market itself more aggressively in the U.S., in part by revamping its Web site. It’s oriented toward students in India, and it will be redesigned to show students that the company is able to teach to U.S. curricula and help them prep for college entrance exams.

Career Launcher charges between $20 and $30 an hour, with rates rising for more complex material, on par with U.S. companies like tutor.com and E-Sylvan.com. Career Launcher says it doesn’t see itself as a cut-rate competitor to U.S. tutoring companies. “We want to be seen as a higher-quality product, not a cheaper, outsourced option,” says Anirudh Phadke, Career Launcher’s business-development director.

Another big Indian tutoring company, Educomp Datamatics, plans to roll out similar services in the U.S. this year with a site called Mentoraide.com. Educomp also creates educational software for classrooms and recently completed a pilot program with a California science class.

Tutor.com says it’s not worried about competition from India. “Online tutoring, as a fairly nascent industry, has so much potential to reach many more students than it does now,” says Chief Executive George Cigale. The company tutors about 3,000 students each night, about half of them in math.

Most of Mr. Satya’s 300 tutors don’t have education degrees, but they all have a bachelor’s degree, mainly in math or physics from Indian universities. Many also have graduate degrees. He pays $8 to $10 an hour — a fortune in India. The pay has created demand among younger graduates for the jobs — the staff is mostly in their 20s and 30s.

Career Launcher recently began offering online tutoring to U.S. college students for $35 an hour — which is more costly than many U.S. online services. “You find very few companies offering college-level tutoring because of the lack of teachers,” says Mr. Phadke. “But here in India, we have so many Ph.D.s and people doing doctorates, so we think we can actually charge a premium.”

For more on Career Launcher go here.