BOUNTIFUL, Utah — A bill that passed this spring is putting extra money into student-teachers’ pockets and breaking barriers for aspiring educators.
In the past, student-teachers have typically gone unpaid while working a full semester but the new program offers a $6,000 stipend across the state.
Layne Horgesheimer attends Utah State University and is a student-teacher at Boulton Elementary School. She’s one of over 450 teacher students in Utah who applied and is benefiting from the bill.
With already so much to juggle in life, the stipend is a sigh of relief for her.
“It helps you not worry about those daily stressors in life — paying bills, eating, food,” said Horgesheimer.
“I’m married, and my husband is also pursuing his education and he’s so busy and so we had to think, before the stipend, 'What are we going to do? Are we gonna put one thing on pause while the other works?' With the stipend, it made it so we could really go and finish and kickstart our careers.”
State Rep. Karen Peterson (R-Clinton) spearheaded the bill and said since student-teachers are usually unpaid, they’ll often drop out or need to take a semester off to save money.
“If someone goes through a teaching experience, they’re more likely to stay in the profession. If someone doesn’t go through a student teaching experience, there’s about a 50 percent chance they will not be teaching in 5 years," Peterson said. "If someone goes through a student teaching experience, there’s a 65 percent chance they’ll still be teaching in 5 years.”
Peterson said the bill gathered support from stakeholders due to the stories of student-teachers who spoke up about the issue of retaining teachers in Utah.
“I had a student from Utah State talk to me about how they had to camp in the canyon all semester because they couldn’t afford to pay their rent," she explained. "I had a student-teacher tell me about eating string cheese every day for lunch because they couldn’t afford to do more than that. Those stories were compelling to my colleagues and to those that needed to fund the bill.”
The program is funded with $8.4 million.
During the upcoming legislative session, the program will be reevaluated to determine what funding will look like going forward based on student-teachers’ interest in the program.
"For people who want to teach, this is a stressful semester and it’s something you think about from the beginning," said Horgesheimer. "Like, where am I gonna be when I student teach" What am I going to have to think about? What am I going to have to do?
"To have a burden lifted a bit with that semester is amazing.”
