TEACHER EDUCATION
    SCHOLARSHIPS, GRANTS & OTHER RESOURCES:
    with extra info for special education teachers & minority/ethnic teachers.

    Compiled May 3, 2016 (Teacher's Day);
    and updated May, 2023
    by R. Harris, for D.D. in Kansas
    Not copyrighted; copy & distribute freely.


    NOTE: Before making the decision to study to become a teacher, consider these issues and risks, as reported in July 2017 by National Public Radio:
    "Teachers With Student Debt:
      The Struggle, The Causes,
      And What Comes Next."
      July 16, 2017, on NPR

    OFFICIAL GOV'T WEBSITES:

     

    FEDERAL GOV'T:

    U.S. Dept. of Education:

      UPDATE & WARNING, EARLY 2017:
      (also see UPDATE (GOOD NEWS), DEC. 2018, below)

      Apparently starting in 2017, under President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVoss, the U.S. Department of Education has begun aggresssively converting Teacher-education GRANTS ("TEACH Grants") into LOANS ("TEACH Loans") -- forcing recipients to repay the "free" money, even AFTER they've received it (as a GRANT) and spent it on college, and fulfilled all the presumed obligations for the grant.

      Technicalities in the paperwork for the grants, and in their requirements for follow-up public service, have been used to ensnare thousands of grant recipients. New teachers' attempts to resolve their surprise sudden-debt problem have met with a stone wall at the U.S.Dept. of Education.

      While I leave the officlal links to this federal aid information here, for the record, I warn students to NOT accept federal "grant" money specificially targeted for teacher education, until this situation is permanently and publicly resolved -- or the current administration is replaced by one which is not so openly hostile to public funding of education.

      The following March 28, 2018 articles -- from a 2017-2018 investigative report series by National Public Radio (NPR) -- uncovered this huge threat to teacher-education grant recipients:

      • on NPR Morning Edition:
          "Ed Department TEACH Grants
            'Bait And Switch'
            Hurts Thousands Of Teachers."
      • on NPR Morning Edition:
          "Dept. Of Education Fail:
            Teachers Lose Grants,
            Forced To Repay Thousands In Loans."
      • on NPR All Things Considered:
          "Why Teachers In High-Need Areas
            Are Now Saddled With Debt"
    UPDATE (GOOD NEWS), DEC. 2018:
    NPR resports that the U.S. Dept. of Education has reformed its policies, addresing the problems noted above. NPR says that teachers who have been teaching as required by their grant agreement, but were caught up in the paperwork and lost their grant status, can now re-apply to
    • have their grants re-instated;
    • have the loans -- that their grants were wrongly converted to -- replaced again by grants; and
    • a refund of interest paid.
    Teachers who completed a portion of the required teaching service may also be eligible for a correction of this problem.

    For more information, see:

    "Education Department To Erase Debts Of Teachers, Fix Troubled Grant Program,"
    Dec. 9, 2018, on NPR (National Public Radio).

    "Teachers Begin To See Unfair Student Loans Disappear Under TEACH Grant Fix"
    May 3, 2019, on NPR (National Public Radio).

    WARNING:
    This fix of the federal "TEACH Grants"
    does NOT apply to a similar problem with
    the PSLF ("Public Service Loan Forgiveness") program
    (for various public servants, including teachers in needy schools)
    -- a separate program from the TEACH Grants.

    The PSLF program is rejecting nearly all applicants -- even after they have performed several years of the public service they were required to perform in exchange for having their student loans forgiven -- forcing them to repay loans they thought they would not have to repay. About 99% of applicants have been rejected, according to research by National Public Radio.

    The Trump administration's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has attempted to investigate the problem, but has been blocked by the Trump administration's Dept. of Education

    OFFICIAL FEDERAL WEBSITES:
    (CAUTION: See WARNING:, above.)

    TEACH Grants - Federal Student Aid
    Teacher Education Assistance for College & Higher Education Grant
    https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/grants-scholarships/teach
    (CAUTION: See WARNING:. above.)

    or see:

    TEACH Grants (explained more clearly than on the fed website, perhaps)
    Teacher Education Assistance for College & Higher Education Grant
    - Fort Hays State University, Kansas
    https://www.fhsu.edu/finaid/teach-grant/
    (CAUTION: See WARNING:, above.)

    Teacher Loan Forgiveness - Federal Student Aid
    https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/teacher
    (basically: 5 years teaching in specified poor areas, and loans are forgiven)
    (CAUTION: See WARNING:, above.)

     

    STATE GOV'T: (KANSAS)

    Kansas Board of Regents - Topeka KS
    (overseeing body of all state universities in Kansas)
    Student Financial Assistance office

    Scholarships & Grants
    https://www.kansasregents.org/scholarships_and_grants

      ...which includes this section, near the end of the list of programs:

      2021-2022 Kansas Teacher Service Scholarship
      https://www.kansasregents.org/resources/PDF/Students/Student_Financial_Aid/KTS_2021-2022.pdf
      ...which is similar to the federal TEACH Scholarship noted above.

     

    .ORG & ORGANIZATION WEBSITES:
     

    Council for Exceptional Children
    http://www.cec.sped.org/

    ISSUE BRIEF:
    Preparing Future Educators
    to Meet the Needs of Children with Disabilities

    http://www.cec.sped.org/sitecore/shell/Controls/Rich%20Text%20Editor/~/media/7AFC5F82897C44BEAF98E8E510DD87E0.ashx


     

    TeacherDegree.org

    How to Become a Special Education Teacher
    http://www.teachingdegree.org/types-of-teachers/special-education/

    Teaching Scholarships in Kansas
    http://www.teachingdegree.org/kansas/scholarships/


     

    Teach.org
    Teaching Scholarships & Teacher Grants for Prospective Teachers
    https://www.teach.org/teaching-scholarships

    Teacher.org
    Scholarships for Teachers
    http://www.teacher.org/scholarships-grants/

    Edutopia.org (filmmaker George Lucas' foundation)
    The Big List of Educational Grants & Resources
    http://www.edutopia.org/grants-and-resources


     

    Recruiting Teachers of Color:
    A 50-State Survey of State Policies
    (NOTE: The Kansas program seems a bit vague, at least for under-grad students)
    http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/58/53/5853.pdf

    by the
    Education Commission of the States
    700 Broadway, Suite 1200
    Denver, CO 80203-3460
    Phone: 303.299.3600
    Web address: http://www.ecs.org/teachingquality/

     

    COMMERCIAL WEBSITES
     

    Top Masters in Education website
    55 Biggest Scholarships for Educators
    http://www.topmastersineducation.com/biggest-scholarships-for-education-students/

    U.S. News & World Report magazine
    Learn to Teach With Scholarships for Educators
    http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-scholarship-coach/2015/04/30/learn-to-teach-with-scholarships-for-educators

    Discover Student Loans (credit card & loan company)
    Find Ethnic & Minority Scholarships

    (CAUTION: Don't give this site any info about you; just use it to jump to the official websites about the individual scholarships, from their list of links)
     
    https://www.discover.com/student-loans/scholarships/ethnicity.html

    TEACHING IS A NOBLE PROFESSION.   BE NOBLE!