Training Division Relaxes TEACH Grant Program Pointers
Prospective teachers can breathe easier with their educational and career goals as the U.S. Department of Education relaxed its TEACH funding program and the Biden-Harris administration is proposing an increase in the program about the American Family Plan (AFP).
The Ministry of Education’s changes – first introduced in the summer of 2020 by former Minister of Education Betsy DeVos – are designed to remove the TEACH program hurdles that have often left scholarship holders with onerous loans – converted from scholarships for paperwork reasons.
The program awards grants of up to $ 4,000 per year to students majoring in education or planning to teach. In return, the scholarship holders are required to teach in a discipline with high needs and an under-served school for four years, with eight years’ notice. If the beneficiaries have not completed the required four years or have not provided proper documentation, the grant has subsequently been converted into a direct loan.
DR. Elizabeth Birr My
The intention behind the existing TEACH Grant program was to encourage people to enter the teaching profession “which is not always paid as high as we would like it to be, like other real professions – and to keep people in the profession because they don’t try ”. Reduce debt and lured into higher paying jobs to work off that debt, ”said Dr. Elizabeth Birr Moje, Dean of the University of Michigan School of Education. “Unfortunately, in the past, the TEACH grant program has resulted in many people actually running into more debt than they would have received without the TEACH grants, as the TEACH grants were so regulated that your materials were not submitted accurately in the right time frame they would be converted into loans at very high interest rates.
Under these new changes, which went into effect on July 1, the scholarships for TEACH scholarship holders will not convert into loans unless they certify that they have started teaching or want to start teaching within 120 days of graduation or leaving school .
The Ministry of Education also opened the review process to all TEACH scholarship recipients whose grants were converted into loans to provide more relief to recipients whose scholarships were mistakenly converted.
In addition to these changes to the Department of Education, the Biden-Harris administration is seeking to strengthen the TEACH grant program through the AFP. The plan would double the grant for junior, senior and graduate students to $ 8,000 per year, eliminate GPA requirements, and expand the TEACH program to include early childhood educators.
“The American Families Plan would enrich the TEACH Grant program in a way that I fully support,” said Moje. “Doubling the funding amount is absolutely crucial. … I think the least we can do is really try to recruit the most dedicated and passionate about teaching and especially teaching in historically marginalized and marginalized communities. “
Moje praised the expansion of the program to include early childhood education.
“It is even more difficult to get people to go through university certification programs just to get back the salaries of educators,” said Moje. “It is a real problem in our society that we no longer pay the people we trust with our children’s learning, but it at least increases the possibility for people to recoup some of their investment in actual professional learning.”
The AFP also includes $ 2.8 billion in grow-your-own programs and one-year, paid teacher residency programs. It also includes $ 400 million for teacher preparation programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and Minority Service Institutions (MSIs), and $ 900 million for special education teacher development.
Moje described the investment in special education as absolutely critical.
“We know that in order to be really good at helping students, teachers need to be fluent in the diverse needs of learners and understand the variety of learning methods,” she said.
According to the Ministry of Education, almost 27,000 students at more than 740 institutions received funding from the TEACH program in the 2019-20 school year.
“Our teachers are masters of the students’ potential and stewards of their success. To respect and honor teachers who serve the students with the greatest needs, we must also ensure that these educators receive the support they are entitled to from this important federal program without jumping through unnecessary hoops, ”said Dr . Miguel Cardona, US Secretary of Education, announcing the new changes.
According to Cardona, the additional funding from the American Families Plan will “strengthen the teacher pipeline into the profession, support teacher retention and address critical teacher shortages so that every child across America can be taught by well-prepared and outstanding educators.”
Arrman Kyaw can be reached at akyaw@diverseeducation.com.
