Committee hears bill to provide $7,500 stipend to student teachers to address teacher pipeline

The committee held a hearing on House Bill 310 (LC61100107), a proposal to create a grant program that would pay eligible college student teachers $7,500 each to compensate them for unpaid student-teaching internships. Representative Phil, the bill sponsor, told the committee student teaching commonly requires a full-time, unpaid commitment (commonly described as 40 hours per week or roughly 500 hours for the semester) that many candidates cannot reconcile with paid work, tuition and living expenses.

Representative Phil said the stipend would be distributed as a grant through local school districts and identified the proposal as a workforce development step intended to improve recruitment and retention of new teachers. He estimated approximately 6,000 student teachers participated in recent years and noted that if every student teacher received the stipend the program could approach a $50 million annual cost; the bill is subject to appropriations.

Student and union advocates testified in favor. Skyler Nunley, a former fifth-grade teacher and state student organizer for the Georgia Association of Educators who recently completed student teaching, described student teaching as frequently exceeding 40 hours per week and said living expenses rather than tuition were often the cause of debt in the last year of a preparation program. Austin Bowmer, a senior about to begin student teaching, described the financial stress of unpaid student teaching and said the stipend would help prospective teachers complete the program and start classroom careers.

Robert Aycock of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators told the committee his organization supports the proposal and noted that teachers who complete traditional student-teaching routes have higher retention rates than some alternative pathways, citing Professional Standards Commission data as part of the justification for supporting the in-class laboratory experience.

Committee members asked about grant mechanics and data. The sponsor said the stipend would be $7,500 per student teacher disbursed via districts, that the program would not be competitive (applications would be paid to qualifying student teachers who had not previously received the grant) and that an estimated headcount of student teachers in recent years is "a little over 6,000." Questions also focused on whether installment payments or full payment at completion would be preferable; the sponsor said installment payments would better help students meet month-to-month expenses. The committee did not vote on the bill at the hearing.