January 9, 2008

Teach Grant Program Is Popular With Student-Aid Applicants

Washington — A new tuition-grant program for future teachers is causing headaches for the Education Department and American colleges, who are working this week on the complicated job of drafting regulations to carry out the Teach Grant program.

But it’s already proving popular with students.

The department revealed today that of the nearly 200,000 applications already received for federal financial aid for the coming academic year, about 15 percent have a checked box indicating an interest in the Teach Grant.

That means about 30,000 college students would accept the $4,000-a-year grant, even as experts warn that most will not end up meeting all the conditions and therefore will be forced to repay the entire amount as an unsubsidized federal loan. Among other requirements, grant recipients will have to maintain a 3.25 grade-point average and teach at least four years in a grade school with a high need for teachers.

That level of interest exceeds the expectations of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which is basing its estimate of the cost of the program on about 20,000 students a year receiving a Teach Grant. —Paul Basken

Comments

1. I doubt that this is a true indication of interest in teaching. It is truly an indication that students want to receive grants. Knowing the working mind of most aid applicants, they probably assumed that the TEACH Grant was a grant to teach them not to become a teacher.

   — Dr. Pat Watkins    Jan 10, 09:01 AM    #

2. Agreed. I would also venture to say that most students/parents do not know the requirements of the program and assume that a “grant” is a “grant” and they will not have to repay it. Thus, they automatically check it off on the FAFSA. For these reasons, I think that the name of this program is very misleading.

   — LM    Jan 10, 09:36 AM    #

3. This is most unfortunate. When students are applying for financial aid, particularly first generation college students or those from underrepresented groups, they are looking for grants and scholarships primarily, money that will not have to be repaid. Some will never read the fine print. Why not call it the TEACH grant/loan?

   — Dr. Pamela Tolbert-Bynum    Jan 10, 09:52 AM    #

4. If families were confused by the name of the grant, I would expect more than 15% to indicate an interest in the Teach Grant. Rather, some families may see the Teach Grant as a backdoor approach to obtaining increased unsubsidized Stafford loan limits. After all, it is available even to no-need students, with just a COA-Aid cap.

   A key problem is how these convertible grants interact with financial aid packaging policies (i.e., if they substitute for need-based aid, especially other grants, students could be left with more debt than they otherwise would have received).

   Another problem has to do with the conversion to debt. If the Department waits until the end of the 8 year period to convert the grants to loans, those students could end up with the capitalized interest doubling the amount owed. That’s quite a penalty. On the other hand, it is within the Department’s power to adopt a “fail first” policy whereby the grants were converted to loans as soon as it was obvious that the student wouldn’t qualify (e.g., allow the student to request early conversion of the grants to loans).

   It would have been much better for these Teach Grants to have been offered as a loan forgiveness program or even as a straightforward grant to students who are enrolled in teaching credential programs.

   — Mark Kantrowitz    Jan 10, 09:58 AM    #

5. Often times young people believe they want to teach, believe they are willing to teach in low income areas, and believe they will easily maintain a certain GPA. In the real world, stuff happens. What type of infrastructure will need to be developed to track the many quirks of this program. Federal financial aid is too big a venture to establish micro-requirements. The ACG/SMART debacle are perfect examples of programs developed that do not work in the real world due to the many arbitrary requirements attached. These requirements cause administrative nightmares to save money at the very margins of the program.

   — PA    Jan 10, 10:11 AM    #

6. Forty-one years ago my parents and I signed a pledge that I would teach in public school for two years in return for waiver of my undergraduate tuition. Being from a very poor family, this program made it possible for both my sister and I to receive an undergraduate education. I remain grateful to the State of Maryland for this program.

   — RFW    Jan 10, 10:16 AM    #

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