Capitol Beat

Bipartisan proposal seeks to establish student teacher stipend program

State Sens. Ryan Aument and Vincent Hughes hope to address staffing shortages and educators’ financial struggles.

After announcing plans to draft a proposed student teacher stipend program in Pennsylvania, two state senators have officially attached a number to incentivize students into entering the profession by alleviating some financial burden for aspiring educators.

After announcing plans to draft a proposed student teacher stipend program in Pennsylvania, two state senators have officially attached a number to incentivize students into entering the profession by alleviating some financial burden for aspiring educators. skynesher/Getty Images

By Marley Parish

After announcing plans to draft a proposed student teacher stipend program in Pennsylvania, two state senators have officially attached a number to incentivize students into entering the profession by alleviating some financial burden for aspiring educators.

Sens. Ryan Aument, a Republican from Lancaster County, and Vincent Hughes, a Democrat from Philadelphia, officially unveiled language for their bill that proposes rewarding aspiring teachers at a Pennsylvania college or university and completing the student-teaching graduation requirement, amounting to $10,000 for those enrolled in a teacher preparation program and an additional $5,000 for those completing the student teacher experience requirement at a school that doesn’t traditionally have student teachers or where staffing shortages are high.

“It’s way past time Pennsylvania starts walking the talk when it comes to supporting and cultivating future teachers. Our current system puts a financial burden on prospective teachers, and in turn, we’re seeing many individuals who would be great educators turn to other professions,” Hughes said. “We need to act now to reduce this financial burden for future teachers to improve the quality and diversity of our teacher pipeline.”

Their bill, dubbed the Educator Pipeline Program, also includes a $1,000 stipend for cooperating teachers who mentor student-teachers.

The lawmakers drafted the legislation in response to the worsening educator staffing shortage, which has created increased workloads for existing teachers who sacrifice their preparation periods and lunch breaks to cover for their colleagues – often in spaces consolidated to accommodate limited resources and larger class sizes.

“If we do nothing to get more teachers into Pennsylvania schools, our children will suffer consequences like overcrowded classrooms, impersonal instruction, and fewer course options,” Aument said. “Teachers will have less time to help our most vulnerable children, resulting in more students being left behind. We need to make it easier for skilled college graduates to pursue a career in teaching.”

The program would operate within the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, similar to the framework used for the School-based Mental Health Internship Program, which passed with the 2022-23 budget.

Aument and Hughes previously said their suggested stipend would build on existing efforts to increase education workforce participation, citing the new Career and Technical Education track for education fields and authorization for the Department of Education to collect data on the educator pipeline.

On Monday, the state Senate Education Committee held a hearing on ways to address the school worker shortage, with Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators Executive Director Sherri Smith saying a stipend for student teachers is one way to remove possible barriers that deter students from pursuing a career in education.

“Individuals often have to quit their part-time or full-time jobs to be able to complete their student-teaching obligations. This becomes a barrier for some as it is just not feasible for them to give up their paycheck to complete their student-teaching obligations,” Smith said. “That’s why looking for a way to provide stipends to our student-teachers is a critical step to fixing our current impaired educator workforce pipeline.”

Marley Parish is a reporter for the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, where this story originally appeared.

NEXT STORY: Traveling Violation

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.