Go to a professional counselor! Seriously, there are people who are trained to answer the kinds of questions you have and are dealing with actual data that is good and is recent. Asking on Slashdot you are going to end up with a very poor signal to noise ratio, so I recommend going to someone who is a pro.
Good luck, and remember that there are going to be times in the coming years when you wonder what you were thinking, they will pass.

OK, not to rain on this parade, but....isn't our educational system pretty much predicated on cramming as much info into your head only to have you barf it back out on a test, never to use it again without looking it up?

No one seems to be asking the deeper questions:

Why do we have to pay kids to learn/study?

What are the specific flaws in the system?

What are we testing for?

What do we want to test for?

Are the testing methods adequate to the task?

Polly want a cracker?

Buy an old radio that has enough room to fit the mother board and some cooling fans. Remove the guts to the radio, mount the MB and hard drive and use it as a streaming audio server.

Let's start out by saying that there is plenty of blame to go around. How much time are we going to waste trying to figure out whose fault the broken educational systems are?

Instead, lets try to redesign the systems. This is basic problem solving:

1) What are the goals we have?
                - Universal Literacy?
                - Scientific awareness?
2) What resources do we have available to reach those goals?

3) Put a plan together using the resources available that includes analysis not only of desired student outcomes, but desired teacher outcomes as well.

I guess it is easier to play the blame game. Personally, I wonder what the turnaround time from good teacher to bitter burnt out husk working towards retirement is?

Let's not forget about stiction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiction in the HD. If the HD has sat for that long there is a good chance it will not spin up.

One of the choices here in Portland is FreeGeek. They build PCs for folks and offer classes in open source usage.

http://www.freegeek.org/

OK, let's talk turkey. What you know enables you to do the job. Who you know enables you to get the job.
My usual strategy when I am not working is to volunteer at a non-profit organization. Go the extra mile and help with fundraisers and do those things nobody else wants to do. This gets you noticed by the board, and those folks are usually decision makers or influential people in the business world.
You can also do a stint in Americorps. This helps you pay back some of those loans and helps you make contacts.

Every job I got was because of who I knew, and not what I knew.
Start networking now, actually you should have started networking two years ago, but it is not too late.
Colleges teach you to know stuff, but unless you know people you are up the creek.

Good luck from a Masters student in the middle of changing careers. (Don't pass up opportunities that are not directly in your field if you think you might enjoy them.)