Bill would offer grants, loan forgiveness to keep teachers on the job

Teachers would get grants, loan forgiveness and bigger tax exemptions under a bill unveiled by Democratic New Jersey lawmakers Friday that aims to attract more people to the field and keep them there.

The bill was prompted by reports that teachers are leaving the classroom in greater numbers because of lagging pay, debt and a lack of support, while fewer are enrolling in teaching programs at colleges and universities.

“Other nations are doing more to support the teaching profession. We’re doing less,” said Sen. Cory Booker, who announced the measure at Public School 17 in Clifton with Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson.

“More and more teachers are carrying crippling debt in a state like New Jersey, where the cost of living is so high, teachers often find themselves in critical if not dire straits," he said.

The bill’s backers cited statistics from the Learning Policy Institute, which found a 17 percent turnover rate among teachers in 2012-13. The highest rates were in the South and the lowest were in the Northeast, where states tend to pay more and support smaller class sizes.

In New Jersey, 9 percent of teachers left their jobs that year, with more than a third of the departures due to retirement.

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Marie Blistan, president of the New Jersey Education Association, the largest teachers' union in the state, said many of the baby boomers who went into teaching are retiring and that there aren’t enough students in training to fill those jobs.

Like other states, New Jersey faces teaching shortages in certain subject areas. There are not enough teachers in the state for bilingual education, English as a Second Language, math, science, special education and foreign languages, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Across the United States, enrollment in teacher preparation programs fell 35 percent between 2009 and 2014, according to the Learning Policy Institute. Blistan said the rate was similar in New Jersey, where enrollment was down at least a third.

The bill, called the STRIVE Act, would try to reverse that trend with incentives, in particular for teachers who get jobs in low-income areas. It includes the following measures:

Increase the amount given in TEACH grants, now up to $4,000, to students studying to be teachers in high-need subjects or low-income schools.

Incremental loan forgiveness for teachers who work in low-income schools, and loan cancellation after seven years.

Expansion of loan forgiveness programs to early childhood teachers

Subsidies for teacher licensing and certification fees for students preparing to be teachers.

Increase the tax deduction for teachers who spend their own money in the classroom.

Teachers in New Jersey are among the highest paid in the nation, with the average elementary school teacher earning $68,100 in 2016, compared to $55,490 nationwide.The average high school teacher was paid $74,070, while counterparts in others states made $58,030 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But New Jersey also has one of the highest costs of living, the bill’s backers noted. And teachers, they said, graduate with an average of $50,000 in student debt.

The Democratic bill calls for increasing the tax deduction that teachers receive from $250 to $500, and to $1,500 if they work in high-needs schools. It faces an uncertain future in a Congress that is under Republican control and bitterly divided along partisan lines.

The measure acknowledges that teachers often use their own money to buy classroom supplies or to help a child in need.

Kristen Mazur, a third grade teacher at School 17, said she spends a few thousand dollars each year on her students. She paid for many of the books that filled bins throughout the classroom, she said. She buys supplies for science projects that the school may not be able to provide.

“The school does provide us with things, but teachers always know we can do more and do better. When we find lessons and activities we want to use in our classroom that provide the most benefit to children, we go out and purchase those materials. We know student learn better when they’re doing hands-on activities and working together in groups.