Money for Potential Arizona Teachers

by David Safier

(TASL) In my ideal world, teachers would be paid considerably more, both to reward them for the difficulty of the work and to attract the best candidates to the field.

In my less-than-ideal-but-better-than-it-is-now world, teachers would have their college loans forgiven for each of the first five years they teach.

We seem to be edging toward the latter. Here are a few ways for teachers to pay for college by committing to teach when they’re through.

In Arizona, the Mathematics Science and Special Education Teacher Student Loan Forgiveness Program pays for up to five years of college tuition for students who agree to teach math, science or special ed. Unfortunately, funding only allows for 500 people to take part. David Schapira, D-Tempe, who taught for awhile himself, wants to increase the budget for the program and expand it to include teachers who agree to teach in rural areas.

Beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, the federal government will implement “the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program that provides grants of up to $4,000 per year to students who intend to teach in a public or private elementary or secondary school that serves students from low-income families.”

Programs like these will encourage more students to consider a teaching career because of the free or reduced-price education. After five years, if they don’t like teaching, they can move on. The programs cost money, of course, but they’re not as costly as raising all teacher salaries, so it’s more likely they’ll be put into practice.

It’s a start, and a hell of a lot better than the situation today, where beginning teachers are paid crummy wages, and “Oh, you remember you have to pay back those tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, right?” Maybe if these programs show results, they’ll be expanded to include more potential teachers.