Troops for Teachers may expand to younger vets
Pondering a change of course when you leave uniform? Take a look at the Troops to Teachers program.
Established in 1994, Troops to Teachers is a joint Education Department and Defense Department program that recruits retiring and separating service members to teach in public schools that serve students from low-income families throughout the U.S. The program also seeks to relieve teacher shortages in subjects such as math, science and special education. Eligible military personnel can receive financial assistance, placement assistance and referral services through the program.
TIME magazine recently highlighted the Troops to Teachers program in an article that chronicled the efforts of Reps. Tom Petri (R-Wis.) and Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) to expand the program by easing restrictions on who is eligible to participate and who can qualify for a $5,000 program bonus.
Currently, veterans must have served at least six years to participate in the program. The legislation proposes reducing this requirement to four years, a change that would expand the program to more service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Further, Troops to Teachers currently gives a $5,000 bonus only to participants who teach at schools where “at least 50 [percent] of the students are from low-income families or the school has a large percentage of students who qualify for assistance under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.” Petri and Courtney propose enlarging the bonus pool to include all schools that receive Title I funding from the Department of Education. The congressmen hope this move would open more doors to older military retirees, who might be less inclined to relocate for a teaching position in a school that would qualify them for the program bonus.
Research has shown that Troops to Teachers has been successful at bringing into the profession individuals previously underrepresented in teaching, among them men, minorities and teachers in high-demand subject areas. But while the field of education has much to gain from Troops to Teachers, program participants perhaps have equally as much to gain from teaching. While the profession is not one for those who hope to get rich — the estimated average salary of all public elementary and secondary school teachers in the 2004-05 school year was $47,602, according to the American Federation of Teachers — advantages of teaching include weekends, holidays and summers off, and a level of job security not often seen in our current economic climate.
