A bill that passed this spring is putting extra money into student-teachers’ pockets and breaking barriers for aspiring educators.
In the past, student-teachers have typically gone unpaid while working a full semester but the new program offers a $6,000 stipend across the state.
Layne Horgesheimer attends Utah State University and is a student-teacher at Boulton Elementary School. She’s one of over 450 teacher students in Utah who applied and is benefiting from the bill.
With already so much to juggle in life, the stipend is a sigh of relief for her.
“It helps you not worry about those daily stressors in life — paying bills, eating, food,” said Horgesheimer.
“I’m married, and my husband is also pursuing his education and he’s so busy and so we had to think, before the stipend, ‘What are we going to do? Are we gonna put one thing on pause while the other works?’ With the stipend, it made it so we could really go and finish and kickstart our careers.”
State Rep. Karen Peterson (R-Clinton) spearheaded the bill and said since student-teachers are usually unpaid, they’ll often drop out or need to take a semester off to save money.