By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Ahead of Teacher Appreciation Week, the Biden-Harris Administration has unveiled comprehensive initiatives to bolster the teaching profession and support schools nationwide. The initiatives include calling on states to increase teacher pay, fix public service loan forgiveness (PSLF), support special education teachers, establish a technical assistance center, provide data on PSLF, and increase special education funding.
The administration also laid out its mission to return schools to pre-pandemic staffing levels. While teacher shortages remain, school staffing has recovered above pre-pandemic levels, including 40 percent more social workers and 25 percent more nurses, who provide critical support to students and help support teaching and learning.
Additionally, to help observe Teacher Appreciation Week, First Lady Jill Biden, a lifelong educator, hosted the inaugural Teachers of the Year State Dinner at the White House, honoring educators for their excellence in education. Missy Testerman, the 2024 National Teacher of the Year, and state Teachers of the Year from across the United States were also celebrated for their dedication to the profession.
The White House declared that it’s strengthening the teaching profession by expanding registered teacher apprentice programs to 34 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico while providing an affordable and high-quality path for candidates to become teachers in communities nationwide. The plan includes securing about $2.7 billion of investment in teachers in the current fiscal year budget to help states and communities address teacher shortages.
“Our nation’s teachers prepare and inspire the next generation of leaders critical to our future,” White House officials said. “President Biden has been clear since day one that to address these long-standing staffing challenges facing our schools, exacerbated by the pandemic, teachers, paraprofessionals, and other school staff need to be paid competitively and treated with the respect and dignity that they deserve, including through improved working conditions for staff and learning conditions for students.”
According to the White House, 30 states and the District of Columbia have taken action to raise teacher pay, supported by $130 billion from the American Rescue Plan, the largest-ever investment in public education. One benefit of the investment is that the funds could support teacher salaries in underserved schools and enhance teacher pipeline programs.
Officials noted that the administration’s reforms to the PSLF program have benefitted nearly 876,000 borrowers, with $62.8 billion in approved debt relief distributed across every state and Congressional district.
An additional $25 million in funding has been secured to address the shortage of special education teachers, with grants available to support the preparation and development of educators in this critical field.
Further, the Biden-Harris administration announced that establishing a technical assistance center would support states and communities in increasing teacher recruitment and retention, including expanding educator pathways and enhancing diversity in the profession.
This new center will provide universal and targeted intensive capacity-building services designed to support states as they, in turn, support their districts, schools, and partners in developing and scaling practices that establish and enhance high-quality, comprehensive, evidence-based, and affordable educator pathways (including educator residency and Grow Your Own programs, and emerging pathways into the profession such as registered apprenticeship programs for teachers), and in improving educator diversity, recruitment, and retention.
Additionally, the administration said it believes that providing data on PSLF would demonstrate the impact of loan forgiveness on public service workers, including teachers. The White House added that additional funding will be allocated to support the training and development of special education teachers, addressing a persistent shortage in this area.
“These initiatives build on the administration’s ongoing efforts to support educators, including investments in teacher recruitment programs, educator diversity, and the expansion of high-quality teacher preparation programs,” White House officials said.
