Troops to Teachers Program is ready to help you teach

The Troops to Teachers Program has been around since 1994 and is available for all the military branches. With the Troops to Teachers Program, the federal government will provide qualified members $5,000 dollars to pay the cost of getting certified in teaching.

In addition to that, there is a one-time bonus of up to $10,000, if they start teaching at a high-need school. A high-need school is classified as such if it 50 percent or more of the students that attend that school qualify for Federal Free Reduced Lunch Assistance. In order to qualify for Troops to Teachers, you must meet two requirements: time in service and education. Time in service is equivalent to six years active duty, 10 years drilling reservist or have been medically separated from the service due to a medical disability.

To meet the education requirement, you must have a four-year degree from an accredited university in any subject area or have 30 credit hours of college with six years military experience in an area that is taught vocationally at the high school level. According to Georgia Troops to Teachers/Spouses to Teachers Program Manager Bill Kirkland, if you choose to go through the troops to teachers program, you must teach at least three years at a public school.

"We do not assign servicemembers to a school, it is up to the servicemember where they feel that they would like to teach. They can then use the funding for the Troops to Teachers Program to pay the cost of making themselves competitive for the position they want to obtain," said Kirkland. "There are some small restrictions that limit servicemembers choices on where they can teach based on the economics of the school system."

There are a number of different certification routes that an individual can take. In the State of Georgia, servicemembers and spouses can have a four-year degree and pass the two GACE (Georgia Assessment for Certification of Educators) tests.

One of the tests is a basic skills exam with math, reading and writing questions and the other is a subject content assessment which grades you on the subject area that you choose to teach. Once you complete the two GACE tests and have a four-year degree, you are considered highly qualified to be hired but not certified yet.

"Even though this means that you are not quite certified yet, you can receive a five-year renewable teaching certificate which means you have up to five years to complete your additional requirements," said Kirkland.

Spouses to Teachers is a similar program to Troops to Teachers except that the money is a lot different.

The federal government can provide military spouses up to $600 to pay for the two GACE tests. Unlike Troops to Teachers, spouses have no commitment to ever teach although it is highly recommended. With spouses the two requirements are that you are married to a military member, whether it is active duty or reserves, and must have either a four-year degree or be enrolled in a program that eventually leads to a degree.

According to Kirkland, the purpose of the program was to help provide quality teachers who wanted to teach in high need schools and who wanted to teach in high need subject areas.

"The quality of military who have gotten out of the service and gone through the Troops to Teachers program have far exceeded anything we had ever hope for as far as teaching quality," he said. "To date, we have had over 10,500 folks who have become teachers through this program nationally and 650 alone in the State of Georgia."

If it isn't enough just knowing the amount of military that have gone through the program, it is the fact that military has the respect of the folks in charge of the program as well.

"The work ethic of the military is one of the key points that makes the troops such good teachers," said Kirkland. "When a problem arises in the classroom, the military member has been trained to resolve that problem."

For more information on either of the programs, contact Bill Kirkland at (404) 408-6057 or visit the Georgia Troops to Teachers website at www.tttga.net.