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May 2 (UPI) -- The Biden administration Thursday said new efforts to support teachers are being implemented to beef up teacher recruitment and retention, deliver more debt relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program and to support special education. The Department of Education this week will announce new grants to support a Center on Strengthening and Supporting the Educator Workforce. The money will help states and communities recruit and train teachers.
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"This new Center will provide universal and targeted intensive capacity-building services designed to support States as they in turn support their districts, schools and partners in designing and scaling practices that establish and enhance high-quality, comprehensive, evidence-based, and affordable educator pathways."
Data was also provided Thursday showing $62.8 billion in approved debt relief distributed nationwide through the PSLFP to 876,000 borrowers who have worked for at least 10 years in public service while repaying their loans.
To try to counter persistent shortages of special education teachers the Biden administration increased funding by $25 million in a personnel preparation grant program to increase the numbers of special education teachers.
Grant funding under that program is used to support special education teacher development.
Over the next week, the Education Department will make roughly $10 million in new grant awards to implement programs under Part D of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
The White House said that through the American Rescue Plan, a strong educator workforce jobs recovery helped rehire teachers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, there are more people working in public schools than before the pandemic.
"Our schools lost hundreds of thousands of local public education jobs in just three months during the pandemic. Since President Biden took office, schools have added 638,000 education jobs," the White House statement said.
