HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania State Education Association launched its Pennsylvania Student Teacher Support Program on Wednesday, April 10. Within the first hour of applications opening on Thursday, April 11, all available stipends were awarded.
According to PSEA, more than 3,500 students applied for the program within the first few hours of the application opening.
“We knew that the Student Teacher Support Program would be an incredible success, but this shatters all expectations. Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency literally ran out of stipends less than an hour after the application process opened. That is incredible,” Aaron Chapin, president of PSEA, said.
“Unfortunately, this astonishing demand means that most students who applied for stipends won’t get them, because there is only $10 million available for the program this year. This is the best possible evidence that lawmakers and Gov. Shapiro need to increase funding for the program in the 2024-25 state budget,” he added.
The program was developed to provide student teachers with $10,000 stipends for 12-week placements in the 2024-25 school year. On top of the $10,000 stipend, student teachers could receive an additional $5,000 for accepting a placement in a high-need area.
An additional grant payment of $2,500 was offered to current teachers willing to serve as mentors for the participating student teachers.
Prior to the announcement of the program, student teaching positions in Pennsylvania were typically unpaid.
“Student teachers often have to give up part-time jobs in order to give their student teaching the attention it deserves. I have friends who have struggled just to afford the commute to their student teaching placements, which can be an hour or more each way,” Amber Bloom, vice president of Student PSEA said. “There are talented young people who would like nothing more than to become teachers but simply cannot afford to make ends meet while completing a 12-week unpaid student teaching placement.”
While the stipends compensate for a 12-week period, the awards are contingent on the student teacher agreeing to work as an educator in the commonwealth for at least three years upon completion of their degree. Student teachers that fail to teach in Pennsylvania for the required three years may be held responsible for repayment of the stipend.
With the original stipends allocated on a first come, first served basis, Chapman noted how many students missed out on the opportunity to receive funding.
“This program will be life-changing for student teachers in Pennsylvania. We should make sure that every single student teacher who needs a stipend can get one. That means we need to fund this program at $75 million in 2024-25 so that no student teacher is left out.”
The original legislation to create the program was passed in December of 2023 with bipartisan support. The goal of the program was to address the teacher shortage in Pennsylvania.
Despite the stipends running out for the upcoming academic year, Chapin holds out hope that the program will receive the necessary funding in order to support as many Pennsylvania student teachers as possible over the coming years.
