UW-Madison extending tuition promise program aimed at boosting number of school teachers in state

As Wisconsin school districts struggle with an ongoing teacher shortage, a privately funded effort at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to recruit more instructors and keep them in Wisconsin is being extended.

In exchange for a commitment to teach at a Wisconsin school for between three and four years, UW-Madison’s Wisconsin Teacher Pledge promises to pay up to $10,798 worth of tuition each year for undergraduate students. It also covers the cost of obtaining a teaching license from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

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After finishing a master’s degree at UW-Madison’s School of Education in August 2022, Camryn Booms of Michigan went to work for Waunakee Middle School as an eighth grade math and science teacher. She told Wisconsin Public Radio her plan wasn’t to go into teaching when she started her post-secondary education. Booms received a bachelor’s degree in biology and psychology from a university in Michigan, but found a passion for working with students.

She said the combination of a one-year master’s degree program at UW-Madison and the teacher pledge swayed her plans.

“So, it was super, super helpful and really made me commit to it,” Booms said. “And I feel like I don’t know if I would have become a teacher, let alone ever moved to Wisconsin if it weren’t for the teacher pledge.”

Wisconsin, like other states, has been facing a teacher shortage exacerbated by pandemic-era retirements. A recent analysis by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum found that the number of emergency teaching licenses issued by DPI has tripled over the last decade.

Emergency teaching licenses allow people with a four-year degree in any subject to teach for one year without being fully certified. The agency issued 3,197 emergency licenses last year. In 2013, just 1,125 emergency licenses were issued.

A national study by Brown University’s Annenberg Institute, published last summer, found there were around 36,000 teacher vacancies across the United States and around 163,000 teachers were working in positions they weren’t fully certified to teach in.

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“The idea isn’t that we want people to teach for three years and then leave,” Hess said. “The idea is that we know from research that the longer you teach, the longer you will teach. In other words, if we can provide an incentive to stay in for three years, it’s much more likely that teachers will stay longer.”

Hess said, with the help of donors, she’d like to see the Wisconsin Teacher Pledge continue for years to come. She said she’s grateful the university has been able to raise more than $26 million for the initiative, but hopes it can serve as a model that can be expanded in Wisconsin.

“Over the long term, I think the teacher workforce is a responsibility of the state,” Hess said. “It’s not a responsibility of private donors.”

Graduates who sign the Wisconsin Teacher Pledge at UW-Madison have five years to fulfill their end of the bargain. Those who teach in high-need subjects like art, bilingual education, health, mathematics, music, reading, science and technology education for three years will satisfy their obligation. Recipients teaching in other fields must teach for four years before any remaining loans are waived.