Good Teachers, Bad Deal

Enlarge this image toggle caption Stacy Kranitz/NPR Stacy Kranitz/NPR

A Department of Education program gives talented, up-and-coming teachers a grant, not a loan, to help them pay for college. The condition: After you graduate, you have to teach in a low-income school.

Thousands of teachers kept their end of that bargain but had their grants turned to loans anyway after sending in a required form a day late or accidentally missing a signature. Some are in crippling debt because of it.

Two NPR reporters spent a year and a half getting to the heart of this bureaucratic nightmare. Today on the show, we learn what they found, and how it changed a department.

Music: "Making Big Plans" and "Sunburn."

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