{"id":31357,"date":"2022-02-02T09:06:27","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T15:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=31357"},"modified":"2022-03-03T09:37:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T15:37:06","slug":"student-loan-repayment-for-teachers-proposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=31357","title":{"rendered":"Student loan repayment for teachers proposed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Education Committee heard testimony Feb. 1 on two proposals intended to address Nebraska\u2019s teacher shortage.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Wendy DeBoer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under LB1128, introduced by Bennington Sen. Wendy DeBoer, a full-time preschool, primary or secondary school teacher who is a Nebraska resident could receive up to $6,000 per year in student loan repayment assistance for five years.<\/p>\n

DeBoer said her proposal would encourage students to enroll in teacher preparation programs and stay in Nebraska when they graduate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that this is an investment in our state to ensure that we have the best quality education for our students,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Under LB945, sponsored by Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, a similar program would provide qualifying teachers up to $5,000 per year in loan repayment assistance for five years.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Lou Ann Linehan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To qualify for assistance under Linehan\u2019s proposal, a teacher must be certified and teaching full time at a public or private school. Applicants also must have completed a bachelor\u2019s degree and a teacher education program at an approved college or university.<\/p>\n

Linehan said her proposal would help attract and retain young teachers, who have relatively low starting pay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that most teachers with student loans would be thrilled to receive this type of assistance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Both proposals call for the Legislature to appropriate $5 million per year to the programs.<\/p>\n

Sara Skretta testified in support of both bills on behalf of the Nebraska Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. She said student loan repayment terms for new teachers, whose starting salary is around $40,000 per year, can be \u201coverwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will help our students coming into the profession know that they have a pathway out of that financial burden,\u201d Skretta said.<\/p>\n

Also in support of both proposals was Tim Frey, dean of Doane University\u2019s College of Education. He said the assistance could help attract people to the profession who otherwise might not consider it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many individuals considering postsecondary education,\u201d Frey said, \u201cfinancial assistance is a significant motivator in selecting a college major or career path.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachel Gibson of the League of Women Voters of Nebraska also testified in support of both bills. She suggested, however, that LB945 might limit the number of teachers who qualify for assistance by requiring a bachelor\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

Gibson said nearly half of all teachers take out loans to pay for their education and about half of those individuals still owe an average of $58,000. Student loan debt can affect teachers\u2019 mental, emotional and physical well-being, she said, and can prevent young teachers from buying a house, starting a family or returning to school.<\/p>\n

No one testified in opposition to either bill and the committee took no immediate action on them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Education Committee heard testimony Feb. 1 on two proposals intended to address Nebraska\u2019s teacher shortage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-31357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-sen-wendy-deboer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/LB1128DeBoer2-1-22a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31357"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31881,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31357\/revisions\/31881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}