Teaching jobs for veterans p1 - Military - College News and Information - Military Times EDGE

The federal Troops to Teachers program has suffered in recent years because of a 2005 rule change that sharply reduced the number of schools in which a vet hired under the program could teach.

That trend could be reversed if new legislation is adopted to restore the original criteria, expanding the number of eligible schools. Participants in Troops to Teachers are given a $5,000 stipend to help them get teaching certification in exchange for three years of service in a “high-need” school, originally defined as any school receiving grants under Title I of the education act.

In 2002, the Troops to Teachers program was included in the No Child Left Behind Act and came under the budget of the Education Department. In 2005, the department defined “high need” as any school where 20 percent of the students come from poor families or where 50 percent participate in the subsidized-lunch program. The number of Troops to Teachers hires nationally fell from 754 in 2007 to 465 in 2008.

Under the proposal, Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said more than 3,600 additional schools in her state alone would be eligible for Troops to Teachers.