Today's Teacher Program
Today's Teacher Program
The K-State College of Education has made scholarships its top priority because it helps alleviate student debt and attracts a more diverse student population to the profession.
Now, we've gone one step farther. With support from generous donors, we've created a program, Today's Teachers, for Kansas teachers who are interested in leading an education-related community service program for children or adults in exchange for a stipend and support for their alma mater. Here's how this program came to be.
Kansas teachers in K-12 are often paid a lower salary than teachers in many other states. This is especially true in rural areas of the state. According to salary.com the bottom 10% of the pay range is $43,667 per year, the top 10% is $74,710 per year. The median annual salary is $57,668.
The Kansas State Department of Education published a document for the 2021-2022 school year showing the average salary across the state is $54,801 plus $2,708 in supplemental salary and $6,639 in fringe benefits for a total average annual salary of $64,148. The problem with this analysis is that it is skewed by higher paying positions in metro areas such as Johnson County, Sedgwick County, and Shawnee County.
The Tomorrow’s Teacher Scholarship Program has been in place since 1999 for Kansas high school students wishing to become teachers and attending Kansas State University. Many of those scholars have graduated and teach in the state of Kansas. Some have moved to other parts of the country or taken administrative or other positions.
We would like to see more Tomorrow’s Teacher graduates find teaching positions in Kansas that pay a competitive wage and would like to launch the Today’s Teacher program to support Tomorrow’s Teacher graduates who want to continue to teach in the state of Kansas.
Program Elements
Priority
First priority will be former Tomorrow’s Teacher graduates currently teaching in Kansas.
Second priority will be given to future Tomorrow’s Teacher graduates wishing to teach in Kansas.
Stipend
A stipend will be awarded to the recipients in the amount of $5,000 per year. Applicants must apply each year.
Community Service
In exchange for the stipend, recipients must perform community service involving some form of teaching and submit documentation to the College of Education. A repository is being created that will encourage pre-service teachers to be thinking about community engagement. The service will be tailored to the needs of the community and the passion and skillset of the recipient. This might be teaching English as a second language, teaching Spanish to managerial employees so they can communicate with their workforce, personal finance, etc.
Administration
The program will be administered by the Kansas State University Foundation in conjunction with the College of Education.
Selection
Recipients will be selected based upon an application (minimum of 1,000 words) they must write that incorporates the following theme.
"America was founded on certain values and ideals. Explain how your teaching philosophy supports these ideals and how your project incorporates students/citizens to live up to these ideals. Please give specific examples and details."
Benefits
Compensation
There is an obvious benefit to the recipient being an augmentation of compensation.
Community Service
Another obvious benefit is the service that is being provided to the community by the recipient.
Value Development
The College of Education will benefit from the repository developed of innovative and impactful community engagement activities. Pre-service teachers will be instilled with the value of community involvement using their teaching skills and will hopefully stay in those classrooms longer.
Recruitment
It is hoped that K-State can use this program to help recruit students who wish to attend the College of Education and become teachers. Knowing that they can receive a Tomorrow’s Teacher scholarship for the four years they attend K-State and then having the opportunity to supplement their income once they graduate, may make K-State an attractive option for them.
Retention
Another benefit may be keeping more K-State College of Education graduates in the state of Kansas as teachers rather having them leave the classroom and/or the state.