Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s bipartisan law, Consider Teachers Act, was signed into law by President Biden this week. The legislation protects Arizona teachers from costly surprise changes in TEACH grant payment requirements.
The bill was endorsed by the Arizona Education Association.
Sinema’s bill, introduced with Indiana Republican Senator Mike Braun, fixes an issue with TEACH grants that mistakenly converted grants awarded to teachers who serve low-income schools into loans which require repayment by reverting all such loans back to grants and dismissing any accumulated interest or fees.
“With our plan now signed into law, we can better protect Arizona teachers serving in low-income schools helping Arizona students access quality educations across our state. The government made a promise to these teachers—and our commonsense, bipartisan law ensures the government honors its obligation,” said Sinema in a press release.
The TEACH grant program began in 2008 as a way to recruit teachers to teach high-need subjects in low-income, Title I schools. The grant program helps cover education costs for teachers in exchange for commitments that they teach in low-income schools for four years. If they do not make good on that commitment, the grants convert to loans.
However, in 2014, a Department of Education review found over 10,000 recipients had their grants converted to loans as a result of errors made by the company hired to manage the program.
Sinema heard from Arizona teachers whose grants were erroneously converted to a loan through no fault of their own.
Since the TEACH grant program was created, the Department of Education reports that there have been 35,593 TEACH grant awards made—totaling $107,740,051—to students in Arizona.