In April, the Post-Gazette Editorial Board called for an increase in funding for the popular Educator Pipeline Support Grant Program, even as fully funding the initiative seemed idealistic for a pilot that began with just $10 million. But this month Gov. Josh Shapiro revealed an interest in setting aside enough to fully fund the program — up to $70 million — for every eligible student teacher.
The EPSG program, launched in 2023, compensates teachers-in-training while they complete the mandatory educational requirement of student teaching, during which they must live without being paid for their work. While Mr. Shapiro hasn’t officially announced his administration’s intentions regarding EPSG, according to reports he tapped Democratic state senators on the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency board earlier this month to indicate his support.
It was immediately clear last year’s pilot program tapped into an overwhelming demand: The first 700 slots were gone within an hour of the program’s launch, and another 4,500 applications eventually rolled in. Even with an eventual funding boost, only half of all applicants eventually received support.
EPSG offers student teachers $10,000 in compensation, or roughly $20 an hour, during their 12-week student teaching assignments. An additional stipend of $2,500 goes to the professionals who open their classrooms to train them. This helps students teachers overcome one of the most difficult hurdles of their training: affording going three months without pay while they earn in-class experience.
Besides helping student teachers fulfill the state’s certification requirements, the program also ties them to the commonwealth, helping to mitigate Pennsylvania’s dire teacher shortage. To receive the EPSG grant, teachers must commit to working in the state for at least three years after they are certified. These new crops of teachers are sorely needed: Last year, emergency teacher certifications — that is, accelerated approvals for substitutes to temporarily serve as full-time teachers — outpaced standard certifications statewide.
In another positive sign for the state’s teacher pipeline, the Shapiro administration’s focus on bureaucratic efficiency has brought the typical wait time for a teacher certification down from around 12 weeks to just two or three weeks. This gets teachers in the classroom faster, and forces them to go without income for a much shorter period.
As for the EPSG program, estimates for the cost of funding stipends for every student teacher range between $50 and $70 million. The biggest unknown revolves around a $5,000 bonus that will likely be offered to teachers who work in districts with the most acute staffing shortages. This bonus hasn’t been included in the program’s first two cycles, because PHEAA must first identify the high-need districts, and then the number of EPSG student teachers who should be eligible.
Regardless of the final price tag, however, the important part of Mr. Shapiro’s commitment is that the program will be fully funded. We hope and expect that he will see this through, and that members of both parties in both legislative chambers will agree. After all, Pennsylvania’s teacher shortage hurts all Pennsylvanians — rural as well as urban, and Democratic as well as Republican.
And those who are entering this challenging and essential profession deserve the state’s support to reach the finish line.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via TNS
