The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is launching a new loan repayment aid program this fall to help address the shortage of K-12 teachers in rural Wisconsin communities.
The university’s School of Education plans to reimburse graduates for part or all of their student loan payments if their teacher salary is less than $ 48,000.
Payments are staggered, with those making $ 20,000 or less receiving a 100 percent refund for every payment they make on their loans. Support will continue until the graduate’s income exceeds $ 48,000 or the student loan is repaid.
The program is aimed at newcomers to the teaching profession at elementary and secondary schools. Students who are already in the program are not eligible.
Jen Collins, director of the School of Education, said students must major and finish school in order to qualify. She said the university wants to help remove one of the barriers faced by graduates who may want to teach in rural communities.
“We know that sometimes when teachers are making decisions about where to get their first job or where to work after they graduate, sometimes that paycheck comes into play,” said Collins. “If we have the opportunity to help them decide to stay in a rural community, maybe they’ll take a little less salary as they know they’ll get part of that student loan repaid and we can be a part of it, that is one of Impulses for us. “
Collins said the average UW-Platteville college graduate has around $ 31,000 in student loan debt.
UW-Platteville already has ties to rural school districts; Around 80 percent of the School of Education’s graduates teach in rural communities, she said.
Kim Kaukl is the executive director of the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance. He said the state’s school districts have seen a decline in teaching staff over the past decade.
“I think there are a lot of young people who wanted to become teachers, but because of the low salaries and the fact that they can do anything in the private sector, it somehow lured them away from the education, even though their hearts were in it.” said Kaukl.
He said the new UW-Platteville loan refund could help more high school students see teaching as a viable career option.
Collins said the school typically has about 40 students who begin the elementary and middle education program each fall. The program has had approximately 60 graduates over the past five years. UW-Platteville hopes the new loan program will help recruit more students, so the university has not set a cap on how many people can enroll in the reimbursement program, she said.
“I’ve gotten several calls from parents who said, ‘Is this too good to be true? What’s the catch?'” Said Collins. “So that could help (students) with the decision to teach, but it could also bring them to campus here.”
With UW-Platteville providing funding for the new program, Collins hopes the university administration will attract enough new students for the loan assistance program to “pay for itself”.
She said UW-Platteville was the first public university in the country to offer such a refund program.
source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/uw-platteville-hopes-to-boost-rural-teaching-workforce-through-loan-reimbursement/
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