HARRISBURG (TNS) — A push is on to ensure that all future educators in Pennsylvania receive a state-funded student teacher stipend while completing what traditionally has been a 12-week unpaid internship.
The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency on Wednesday advised its board members and lawmakers that $45 million in state funding will be required to fully fund the Student Teacher Support Program.
That program, aimed at addressing the state’s teacher shortage, was launched this year. It provides $10,000 stipends to student teachers – or $15,000 if their teaching assignment is in a public or private school that has difficulty in attracting teachers. In exchange, the aspiring teachers have to commit to working at a Pennsylvania school for at least three years. Additionally, a student teacher’s mentoring teacher receives a $2,000 stipend.
The General Assembly provided $10 million for the start-up of the program and Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed increasing that to $15 million in his 2024-25 budget.
When the application for the stipends opened on April 11, the response was overwhelming, with 3,531 applications pouring in during the first three hours. Within the first few days that number swelled to 5,458 applications for stipends that were stipulated in law to be paid out on a first-come, first-served basis.
Since then, PHEAA has eliminated duplicate applications, whittling down the number to 3,435 with 1,401 applicants indicating their intention to do their teaching in the fall and the remainder in the spring. Another 415 incomplete applications are still in the review process and the application window doesn’t close until Dec. 15, according to the agency.
The $10 million is estimated to be enough to fund about 600 student teachers, PHEAA spokeswoman Bethany Coleman said.
“We’ve known since the student teacher stipend application opened in April that there wasn’t enough funds to support every student teacher who would apply,” said Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, who was one of the program’s champions along with Sen. Ryan Aument, R-Lancaster County, along with Rep. Danielle Otten, D-Chester County. “We’re on the right track, but this solution will not be fully realized until the student teacher stipend program is fully funded.”
Aument said, “I’m certainly in favor of expanding it to better accommodate the demand, and hope that it can be part of a broader budget discussion regarding what amount is appropriate and feasible.”
Education professors praised this program as a way to remove a financial barrier that deterred some students from entering the profession, if they had to leave jobs to help pay college costs to focus on their teaching assignment. They also lamented the predicament that only partially funding this program could create with only some student teachers receiving the stipend.
“We’re hopeful that the PA Student Teacher Support Program will be funded so that all those with a heart for teaching will have the opportunity to change the lives of students and their families because we know the greatest reward of teaching is the difference we make in the lives of students,” said Beth Byers, director of Wilson College’s teacher intern program at a spring news conference.
According to the state Department of Education, about 5,000 teaching certificates were issued in 2022, which is down from more than 17,000 in 2011. Some 1,370 positions went unfilled this past year and more than 11,500 left the profession in 2022-23 alone.
Pennsylvania State Education Association spokesman David Broderic said state support is critical to helping address the state’s teacher shortage and to help student teachers make ends meet during their 12-week assignment.
“We need enough funding to ensure that every student teacher who applies for a student teacher stipend can get one,” he said. “This is one of our top priorities because we know that funding student teacher stipends can help attract qualified candidates into the teaching profession and because we believe it’s simply fair to pay student teachers for the work they do during their student teaching assignments.”
Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Allegheny County, who chairs PHEAA’s board, said the agency’s letter was issued to alert lawmakers of the need for more funding as state budget discussions get underway.
“We know what we need,” Fontana said. “If the General Assembly wants to create these programs or the Department of Education, somebody has to fund them.”
