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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 9, 2023 02:44 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Mark Rozzi |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | PA Teach Scholarship Program |
| As the cost of a college education has continued to grow over the last decade, fewer students are training to become our next generation of teachers. According to a recent Pew Research Center report, the percentage of education graduates has dropped significantly over the past 50 years, from 21 percent of all graduates in 1970-71 to just four percent in 2019-20. While our universities are training fewer teachers, elementary and secondary schools have also been struggling to retain qualified teachers, and the stress around the COVID-19 pandemic and new demands on teachers have built on the pressures educators already face at work. As a result, a 2021 report from the RAND Corporation found that one in four teachers considered leaving. My legislation would make it easier for students to pay for their education to become teachers by establishing the Pennsylvania Teach Scholarship Program. This program would provide a scholarship worth up to $7,000 per year, up to $28,000, to eligible students studying within our state school system. To be eligible, these students would have to be engaged in studies to become a primary or secondary school teacher or in a student teaching role. If anyone was ever in doubt about the importance of qualified, passionate teachers, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically highlighted the shortage of teachers in our state as well as just how much we depend on them. We can help to make it easier for students to become teachers themselves and to not feel that they need to leave their profession to pay off student loans. In securing our teachers, we can secure that we have great classrooms for years to come. Together we can address the teacher shortage in our state. Please join me in sponsoring this important legislation. |
Introduced as HB688