Teach Grant Program Is Popular With Student-Aid Applicants

Teach Grant Program Is Popular With Student-Aid Applicants

Washington — A new tuition-grant program for future teachers is causing headaches for the Education Department and American colleges, who are working this week on the complicated job of drafting regulations to carry out the Teach Grant program.

But it’s already proving popular with students.

The department revealed today that of the nearly 200,000 applications already received for federal financial aid for the coming academic year, about 15 percent have a checked box indicating an interest in the Teach Grant.

That means about 30,000 college students would accept the $4,000-a-year grant, even as experts warn that most will not end up meeting all the conditions and therefore will be forced to repay the entire amount as an unsubsidized federal loan. Among other requirements, grant recipients will have to maintain a 3.25 grade-point average and teach at least four years in a grade school with a high need for teachers.

That level of interest exceeds the expectations of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which is basing its estimate of the cost of the program on about 20,000 students a year receiving a Teach Grant. —Paul Basken