Guide to Financial Assistance for Future Teachers

Written by Sasha Blakeley

Financial Aid for Teachers

If you are interested in becoming a teacher, you probably already know that this career requires an education that can be costly. All aspiring teachers need to go through the process of getting degrees, completing educator preparation programs and earning certification, all of which can add up.

Despite these financial barriers, training people to be teachers is more important than ever; the country continues to face teacher shortages in many areas. Additionally, many school districts are underfunded, making it difficult to hire enough teachers. Fortunately, there are plenty of programs that help with this shortage by giving aspiring teachers the resources they need to succeed. Some of these options can even be used to pay for certification exams, such as Praxis, or state-specific exams, like the CBEST for California teachers, TExES for Texas teachers, or FTCE for Florida teachers.

This guide is designed to help you find those resources to finance your education, from scholarships for education majors at the graduate or undergraduate level, to teacher-specific grants, to non-profit organizations that help fund tuition costs for teachers.

TeacherCertification.com

Practice questions

Videos

Lessons

Flashcards

Get immediate help for your certification exam.

Easy-to-follow study guides, practice tests and resources.

Create Account

FAFSA

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is an application students can fill out to see what kinds of financial aid they qualify for, including grants, scholarships, and federal loans. The FAFSA can help students at all stages of their educational journeys find the funding that they need. However, not all of the aid that you get from your FAFSA application are created equal: loans must be repaid and will have varying interest levels, while grants and scholarships do not need to be repaid.

You can apply for FAFSA on the Federal Student Aid website. You will need to create a Federal Student Aid account and receive a FSA ID, for which you will need a Social Security number. From there you will need to provide information about your financial situation, and the application will connect with the Direct Data Exchange (DDX) tool to retrieve your tax information from the IRS. Once your application is processed, you will receive a Student Aid Report (SAR) that tells you about all the aid, including grants and loans, that you qualify for. You may find that the resources you gain through your FAFSA application make all the difference in your ability to pay your way through your education, helping you become a teacher with less of a financial burden.

Scholarships for Teachers

While the idea of finding sufficient financial aid can be daunting, it's not that bad; there are actually many scholarships for future teachers that can help you achieve your goals. Some of these scholarships for teachers are offered at the national level, while others are state-specific, regional, or even offered by individual schools. Some resources will provide aggregates of scholarships so that you can find specific options that work for you, often based on which state you are living in.

Writing scholarship applications can be a challenge. With so many options to choose from, where should you focus your efforts? When writing your applications, make sure that you follow all of the required guidelines (these can be tricky) and focus your attention on scholarships that would make a particularly meaningful difference to your tuition.

There are several advantages of paying your tuition in part or in full with scholarships. Unlike some other kinds of financial aid, particularly loans, scholarships do not have to be repaid. Many of them are also renewable, helping you through your entire degree or at least several years of it. You may find that some scholarships require teachers to commit to a certain number of years teaching in low-income areas or areas with teacher shortages. This can be a great way to give back to your community and to learn quickly through experience. Some scholarships also require you to maintain a particular level of academic achievement each semester or year in order to continue to qualify for aid, especially if your scholarship is provided through your college.

TeacherCertification.com

Watch concise and engaging video lessons that help with your test prep.

• Master concepts quickly with clips from expert instructors
• You get both video lessons and test transcripts
• Save time by quickly reviewing video transcripts for essential lesson information

Create Account

Grants for Teachers

Grants for teachers are similar in many ways to scholarships. They typically do not need to be repaid and are available at the federal, state, regional, and school levels. Sometimes, grants can be used for a wider variety of expenses than scholarships can, including living expenses. However, this varies from one grant to the next, so read the requirements of each application carefully to see exactly how your money can be used. Like scholarships, grants require specific applications, usually detailing information on your educational journey and sometimes requiring a plan for how you will use the grant if you get it. While grants can be obtained for virtually any educational goal, there are specific grants that are designed for teachers, like the TEACH Grant.

The TEACH Grant

TEACH stands for Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education. It is a grant offered through the federal government that has a service component (this is where making sure you fill out the FAFSA comes in, as you can only get a TEACH grant through your FAFSA application). Those who submit a successful application can receive up to $4,000 a year to put toward the education and certification costs of becoming a teacher. It can be applied at the undergraduate or graduate program in participating educational institutions. To be eligible, you will need to have relatively high academic achievement, though different schools have different criteria.

To receive a TEACH grant, you will need to sign a service agreement. This means that in exchange for the money you receive, you will need to work as a full-time teacher in a high-need, low-income area for four years within eight years of graduating from your educational program. If you are unable to do so, your grant will be converted into a loan and you will be obligated to pay it back with interest, so make sure that you have a plan for fulfilling your service requirements if you are interested in applying for a TEACH grant or any similar grant.

TeacherCertification.com

Find self-paced test prep courses.

Find a study plan that can get you ready for your certification exam, whether you have six months or six days.

Create Account

Student Loans for Teachers

Student loans are another option that can help you pay for your education and become a teacher. Loans have both advantages and disadvantages that are important to weigh carefully when deciding whether you would benefit from them. To start with, loans must be repaid with interest, unlike scholarships and grants. This means that if you are going to get a loan, you should have a clear plan for repaying it to minimize the time that you spend in debt. Student debt can be a major challenge, so consider your options carefully when it comes to choosing loans and making a plan. The biggest thing to be aware of is interest rates: some loans have much higher interest rates than others.

The biggest difference in loans is between federal loans and private loans. Federal loans tend to give you less money overall and may have more stringent application requirements, but they also tend to have lower interest rates and may give you more time after you graduate to start repaying the money that you received. Private loans are often more willing to give out more money to more people, but they often have very high interest rates that can make repayment prohibitively expensive.

It is very common for post-secondary students in the U.S. to take out loans, and they can be a very helpful tool. Just make sure that you feel confident that you are making the best choice for your personal situation. Your FAFSA application can also point you in the direction of loans that can make a difference in the cost of your education.

Loan Repayment

Loan repayment plans can help you pay off your debts as quickly as possible after you graduate. Following an existing repayment plan, or making one of your own, is essential if you choose to get loans. An important part of any loan repayment plan is making sure that you never miss a payment, as doing so can increase your interest rates. You may also want to look into entrance or exit counseling, which you can participate in when you start or leave school. This is a form of professional advice available at many schools; it can help you understand your loan obligations and help you come up with a repayment plan.

With any loans, there is always the possibility that you will be unable to make payments for whatever reason. If you fail to make payments for a certain amount of time, usually 270 days, you may go into default. In this case, you can apply for loan consolidation or loan rehabilitation. Loan rehabilitation has a longer application process, but it can result in the removal of the record of default from your credit history, which is not possible with loan consolidation. However, either option can help relieve the burden of full repayment.

Student Loan Forgiveness for Teachers

Because repaying loans can be a major challenge for many people, you may want to look into student loan forgiveness options. Loan forgiveness is a process that will remove your debt so that you no longer have to pay your loans back at all. Obtaining loan forgiveness is often easier if you have taken out federal loans rather than private loans, though not always.

Most notably, there is a federal program called the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program that many aspiring teachers take advantage of. If you graduate and become a teacher, and then spend at least five consecutive years working full-time as a teacher for a low-income school, you may be eligible to have up to $17,500 of debt forgiven. The amount you can have forgiven can depend on your subject area. Check the Teacher Loan Forgiveness page to see what options may be available to you.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program requires you to work for a qualifying employer, but not necessarily in a low-income area. You would need to make 120 qualifying payments toward your loans, which must be of an eligible type. There is no maximum loan forgiveness amount in this program: PSLF will forgive the entirety of your outstanding balance if you qualify.

The Perkins Loan Cancellation program for teachers allows you to have up to 100% of your loans forgiven if they were granted through the Federal Perkins Loan Program. In order to be eligible for this forgiveness program, you must teach full-time at a low-income school. The amount of loan forgiveness that you are eligible for depends on how many years you spend in a low-income school: 15% of your loan can be canceled in the first year, 15% in the second, 20% in the third and fourth, and 30% in the fifth year. This program will also forgive interest accrued alongside your loans. If you do not teach at a low-income school, you may still be eligible for this program if you specialize in certain subjects (mathematics, science, bilingual language programs, and special education, for instance). The Student Aid website has more information on how to apply for this program.

State-Specific Loan Forgiveness

In addition to federal loan forgiveness programs, there are also many programs that aim to help teachers in specific states . Similar programs are available in many states; this is just a representative sample. Some programs have annual deadlines while others do not expire.

There are many other state-specific financial aid programs that are not specifically loan forgiveness; some states will even provide mortgage loans for teachers who are first-time homebuyers, for instance.

Non-Profit Organizations

You've looked at scholarships, grants, and loans. You know all about the kinds of aid that you are qualified to receive through your FAFSA application. There is one more option that you can explore if you need more help paying for your teaching degree and certification -- educational non-profit organizations specifically designed to assist aspiring teachers. These organizations often exist to address teacher shortages or to combine teaching degree assistance with various types of community service. These organizations can help supplement your other financial aid and can be applied for in conjunction with any combination of scholarships, grants, and loans.

AmeriCorps

AmeriCorps is a volunteer civil service society that operates across America. As a member, you can use your service hours to contribute to loan forgiveness and bursaries that can be used to help you pay your tuition, provided you fulfill certain citizenship and service requirements. AmeriCorps is partnered with a program called Teach for America.

Each year, they give out the AmeriCorps education award, which is a financial award that can be put toward tuition or loans. The award is usually between $5,300 and $6,345. The amount you get is decided by how many hours you volunteer and its max is equal to the Pell Grant for that year.

It is usually awarded to those who work in high-need areas or who already qualify for federal loans. To access the services that AmeriCorps offers, you will generally need to join the organization and maintain your membership and service contributions for a year. The amount of money that you receive may be contingent on the certification costs in your region as well as several other factors.

Another option to look into with AmeriCorps is loan forbearance. This is a process that allows you to pause your loan repayment without penalty while you continue to serve as an AmeriCorps member. AmeriCorps will pay the interest on your loans to prevent them from increasing during your loan forbearance. Federal and state loans are eligible for members of this program, and some private loans qualify too, but only at the discretion of the lender. Loan forbearance can give you the opportunity to become more financially stable, save money, and plan for your future without the urgent need to make loan payments.

Troops to Teachers

Troops to Teachers (TTT) is a program that allows former U.S. military personnel to transition to becoming teachers in public schools. The program has a twofold impact: it helps places with teacher shortages by providing more instructors and it is designed to help former service members transition to a second career, focusing on the skills that they are able to bring to the educational field.

The program has options for teaching in all U.S. states and provides counseling for all those eligible. Participation in Troops to Teachers is free but does require a history of military service. To qualify, you must agree to teach full-time at a qualifying school for a minimum of three years after you graduate. In addition to counseling and job referrals, you can also receive up to $10,000 in financial aid to help you make your career transition as smooth as possible.