HARRISBURG (TNS) — Anyone planning to do their student teaching in 2024-25 better set their alarms to be ready around 9 a.m. today when applications for stipends through Pennsylvania’s new $10 million Student Teacher Support Program became available.

The stipends will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. The process begins with downloading an application on the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency’s website, www.pheaa.org/studentteacher. Aspiring teachers will have a chance at landing a $10,000 stipend – which rises to $15,000 if the student teaching placement is at a school that has hard time attracting teachers – to help cover expenses they incur during what otherwise would be an unpaid semester of teacher training. Students who receive a stipend are required to teach in Pennsylvania for at least three years after graduation. The program also provides cooperating teachers who work a student teacher a $2,000 stipend. The program’s kickoff was the focus of a news conference Wednesday in the Capitol Rotunda that Gov. Josh Shapiro attended ahead of his evening plans to attend a state dinner at the White House with the Japanese prime minister. The governor applauded the bipartisan legislative effort it took to bring this student-led initiative to fruition. “One of the biggest workforce challenges we have is that we don’t have enough teachers to educate our children,” Shapiro said. “They came together and said that’s not a problem we’re going to allow to fester. That’s a problem we are going to solve .” In his 2024-25 budget proposal, Shapiro requests a 50% increase, or $15 million, for this program. During the news conference Rep. Gina Curry, D-Delaware County, said the appropriation for this program needs to go even higher. She said $75 million is what is really needed to fully meet the demand for the stipends. Sen. Ryan Aument, R-Lancaster County, who along with Sen. Vince Hughes, D-Philadelphia, championed this initiative in the Senate, said he too expects the demand for stipends to far exceed available funding. Aument said being able to quantify that based on the number of applications that the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency receives will help make a case for additional funding. “I’ll certainly be a voice for it,” he said. The state has experienced a 71% decline in students entering the teaching profession since 2011, Hughes said. Asking students to work 12 to 16 weeks as a student teacher without any income is an obstacle to filling this void that has stood in the way of aspiring teachers for far too long. “That ends now,” he said. For Amber Bloom, there was no other career path she considered. “This is a dream that I’ve had and the job that I wanted to have since I was 5,” said the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg education major and vice president of Student Pennsylvania State Education Association who lobbied lawmakers to enact this program. “I knew I was going to be in debt but getting $10,000 would help relieve some of that stress knowing I can go into the fall knowing I can make my students the best lesson plans possible and the best activities knowing that I’m not crushed under the weight of all my student loans,” she said. If she receives a stipend, it’s going to paying down some of her student loan debt. Commonwealth University at Bloomsburg student Jaclyn Ohl said her stipend money will go toward tuition for her student teaching semester, gas for her car, and professional outfits, as well as to buy materials to make her lessons more engaging to students. She said during her practicum this semester, she wanted to make a six-page flip book for the 30 students in her classroom but it would have cost $150 to print. “I can’t afford that,” she said. “It’s small things like that that add up to a large amount.” Rep. Jesse Topper, R-Bedford County, who helped lead the effort to win support in the House, said the state needs to do what it can to encourage students to enter this critical profession. “The roles that these young people are stepping into will shape lives. They won’t just help with grades or test scores,” he said. “…we need to do whatever we can to ensure that this is a career field that our young people – like my two boys who are 17 and 15 – if they want to go into it, we need to make sure they can go into it.”