Reauthorization of Higher Ed Act
Senate Passes Bills for Economic Access to Higher Ed
Angela Januzzi
June 22, 2007
On June 20th, the Senate Education committee passed a measure geared towards encouraging colleges and universities to work more closely with high-need school districts, in hopes of enabling young teachers financial access towards achieving their teaching degrees. Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, a unanimously approved legislation by the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, will combine the three present grant programs that help states recruit K-12 teachers.
Now, the single initiative will allow districts and colleges to:
• receive grants which can be used to create induction programs for students pursuing their teaching degree
• offer teaching field experience to those students
• enable master’s students to work for a year in economically solvent districts while completing their masters’ courses.
In order for school districts to qualify for the grants, they must possess significant teacher turnover and a substantial percentage of students living in poverty. In addition, one of the bills included in the initiative would increase the Pell Grant maximum to $5,100 next year, increasing to $5,400 by 2011. Currently, the maximum Pell Grant during the 2007-08 academic year will be only $4,310.
Despite the potential of the bills to increase the enrollment of students hoping to earn a teaching degree, the funding for such is not specified anywhere in the measure. Critics of the measure argue the real challenge of manifesting the bills from paper to action will be determining what amount of grant money is feasible for different cases.
Source: Klein, Alyson. “Senate Panel OKs Higher Education Bills Aimed at Boosting Teacher Preparation, College Access.” www.edweek.org. Published Online: June 20, 2007.