House panel endorses Moed plan to keep best, brightest in Indiana

STATEHOUSE – Members of a key Indiana House panel today unanimously endorsed a plan from State Rep. Justin Moed (D-Indianapolis) aimed at keeping our state’s best and brightest teachers in Indiana after they graduate from college.

House Bill 1210, approved in the House Education Committee, creates the Teacher Loan Repayment Fund to attract qualified individuals to teach the most critical subjects at public schools where there are shortages in instructors. In return, the state would pay up to $9,000 in student loans for these teachers.

“By offering to help repay their student loans, we aim to attract college graduates from the top 20 percent of their graduating classes to teach the most-needed subject areas in classrooms at schools where there are critical shortages in teachers,” Moed said.

“If they commit to teach in a STEM subject area (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) or special education, or if they commit to teaching at a school in an area where there are critical shortfalls in instructors, they will qualify for the $9,000 loan repayment at the end of their third year in the classroom,” he continued.

Students will be eligible for the program if they graduated in the top 20 percent of their high school class or the top 20 percent of the ACT or SAT test scores, and if they continued to score high marks by graduating from college with at least a 3.5 grade point average.

“Studies show that there is a high rate of retention among people who stay in the teaching profession for three years,” Moed noted. “My legislation gives us an opportunity to not only provide an incentive to have our best and brightest students lead our classrooms, but also to keep them there for years to come.”

This is the second consecutive year that Moed’s plan has cleared the House Education Committee, and the lawmaker was optimistic that it would become law in the 2014 legislative session.

“This legislation provides answers to two of the great problems facing our state,” Moed said. “It provides the means for our most capable younger Hoosiers to earn a living here in Indiana, and it ensures that we will have a new group of fresh young minds to serve as an example in our schools for the next generation of Hoosier students.”

Co-authors of the legislation are State Reps. Shelli VanDenburgh (D-Crown Point) and Lloyd Arnold (R-Huntington).