PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Education advocates want Pennsylvania to expand funding for a program that pays student teachers for their time in the classroom.
Pennsylvania last year introduced a $10,000 stipend for student teachers as a strategy to address the state's ongoing teacher shortage. The stipend was a financial lifeline for University of Pennsylvania student Tsipora Hacker, a student teacher at Furness High School in South Philadelphia.
"I think a lot of people don't realize student teachers work basically a full-time job, but completely for free," Hacker told KYW Newsradio. "I've tried to take on little jobs here and there, but the homework we have and fulfilling our masters thesis requirements really takes up all of our weekdays and weekends."
The money was offered on a first-come, first-served basis and while 2,100 applications were granted last year, 2,200 were turned away.
"It's such an honor to be one of the first few who got it, but it wasn't able to go to everyone," said Penn student Molly McQuoid, who is a student teacher at Philadelphia's High School for the Creative and Performing Arts.
"There's just not enough hours in the day to really work an outside job and so having the opportunity to get this grant money has just taken off so much financial stress."
At a ceremony at West Philadelphia High School Friday, student teachers spoke of the value of the state's stipend program. "The hardest part about my fall student teaching experience was my struggle to manage expenses while spending 40 hours a week student teaching without pay," said LaSalle University senior Melanie Guckin.
"I don't know what took more damage, my mental health or my bank account," Guckin joked.
State Sen. Vincent Hughes, a Democrat, highlighted Gov. Josh Shapiro's budget proposal to double funding for the program from $20 million to $40 million. Hughes acknowledged that the Republican-controlled state senate has given the governor's budget proposal an icy reception.
"There are other people who don't want to see this happen. They're comfortable with having a shortage of teachers. They're comfortable with having larger class sizes," said Hughes.
"These are difficult times, and nothing is guaranteed," he told KYW Newsradio after the ceremony. "Just because the governor introduced it, which was extremely important — him seeing it as a priority — it doesn't mean it's going to get all the way home."
"In a time when our nation's public education system is more vulnerable than ever and the teacher shortage issue seems to only grow more pronounced, we need to make student teaching more, not less, accessible," said Sara De la Sobera, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania's Urban Teaching Apprenticeship who is student-teaching at West Philadelphia High School.
"My hope is that the generations of student teachers after me will one day bond not over shared financial woes, burnout or stress, but rather by the love and care that they have for their students."