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House Passes Van Hollen Amendment to Recruit More Highly Qualified Teachers in Low-Income Communities, Close Achievement Gap

Date: March 29, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Unemployed and Low-Income Minors and Children K-12 Education


House Passes Van Hollen Amendment to Recruit More Highly Qualified Teachers in Low-Income Communities, Close Achievement Gap

Legislation Will Authorize Teach for America Program

Washington, D.C. - The House of Representatives today passed an amendment offered by Representatives Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mike Castle (R-DE) and a bipartisan coalition of legislators that will help eliminate the education gap that exists between children growing up in low-income areas and those growing up in higher-income areas. The Castle-Van Hollen amendment, Teach for America Act (H.R. 3334), authorizes funding for the Teach for America program to recruit, select, train, and support highly-qualified, recent college graduates to serve in underserved communities. Teach for America is similar to Americorps where Corps members commit two years to teach in urban and rural schools in some of our nation's lowest income areas.

?This amendment is important to helping close the achievement gap in our country,? said Van Hollen. ?I am pleased that more than 130 seniors from the University of Maryland applied to Teach for America. These teachers will help us achieve a goal of ensuring that every child can achieve his or her full potential.?

"I commend Representatives Castle, Van Hollen, Regula, Ford and Osborne for sponsoring this amendment to the Higher Education Act authorizing funding for a national teacher corps," said Wendy Kopp, founder and president of Teach For America. "The passage of this amendment will help us reach our ambitious goal of recruiting, training, and supporting 8,000 highly qualified new teachers by 2010, reaching 700,000 students and helping close the achievement gap in our nation's highest-need communities."

The legislation authorizes $12 million to help Teach for America reach its goals to grow to scale by 2010. Currently, Teach for America has approximately 3,500 Corps members teaching in 22 underserved urban and rural areas across the country, collectively reaching around 250,000 students with an annual budget of $38 million.

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/md08_vanhollen/HR_3334.html

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