Wyden urges feds to fix problem hurting teachers
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on Thursday urged Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to fix her department’s bureaucratic bungling that is hurting teachers in a program that helps attract them to high-need and high-poverty schools.
Wyden’s letter to DeVos comes on behalf of Aram Ansell, a teacher at Roosevelt High School in Portland who has been frustrated and confused by the handling of his Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) grant. Ansell apparently missed one signature on his grant application, which prompted the federal Department of Education to convert his grant into a loan.
Wyden said Ansell is not alone in his frustration.
“Members of Congress have been hearing similar cases from teachers around the country whose TEACH grants have been converted to loans, sometimes seemingly in error and often without notice,” Wyden wrote DeVos. “As you know, the TEACH grant program helps attract teachers to high need and high-poverty schools, and I am exceedingly concerned that these grant-to-loan conversions are hurting Oregon’s teachers, schools, and students.”
“Instead of overwhelming teachers with complex paperwork and punishing them harshly for minor errors, the Department should facilitate a simple solution to ensure the award to its recipients,” he wrote. “Anything short of providing clear guidance and flexibility for grant recipients is a dereliction of your federal responsibility.”
A copy of the entire letter is here.
