5 Ways TFA Fosters Financially Sustainable Career Paths
At Teach For America, we understand that while shared values drive you to join our mission-driven community, money matters, too. That’s why we provide corps members and alumni with resources to aid smart money decisions, address immediate needs, and contribute to long-term financial wellness inside and outside the classroom.
To address these needs, we identified ways to ease the financial load while joining the corps. By putting these five systems in place, we were able to create space for our coalition of change agents to deepen their focus on making a positive impact in the communities they care about.
1. Address Critical Financial Needs
Financial priorities such as moving costs, living expenses, licensure exams, and money for housing are top of mind for applicants when considering Teach For America.
We provide a stipend to all corps members to help with the costs. The stipends range from $3,000-$6,500, depending on the community where we operate. This stipend is just the baseline transitional assistance, as many more corps members qualify for additional need-based financial support we offer.
By addressing these critical financial areas, we hope to support incoming corps members with finances and keep the focus on helping every student shine.
To paint a better picture, watch this brief overview about Teach For America corps member finances and what you can expect regarding salaries, available stipends, awards and more.
2. Prioritize Accessibility
Studies have shown that all students, regardless of race or ethnicity, benefit socially, emotionally, and academically from a diverse teacher workforce. Despite these insights, student loans and familial wealth can often contribute to financial hurdles that deter professionals from entering the education field.
To address those gaps, we offer:
- An additional $3,000 stipend for Pell Grant recipients and those from low-income backgrounds who do not receive federal student aid. This is available to individuals who graduated on or after July 1, 2023.
- We also offer access to additional need-based grants and loans. Applying for further need-based financial support can help incoming corps members cover additional costs, beyond the stipend(s) they received, associated with transitioning to the corps.
By exploring more ways to support our network, we aim to change the classroom dynamic to mirror our multifaceted student body and communities.
3. Tailor Information For Your Corps Placement Decision
Moving for a new job can be daunting, especially when the costs to transition varies from region to region. We provide applicants and incoming corps members with the information needed to make the right choice for them.
When applying for TFA, corps members can choose the regions they want an offer from, given they meet the teaching qualifications. To assist applicants in deciding where they'd like to join the corps, we created an interactive map that provides valuable information about our various locations.
This user-friendly tool provides a useful snapshot of salary ranges, rent averages, teacher certification costs, available financial aid, location-specific transitional support stipends, and other significant information regarding the cost to transition to each region.
By providing this information upfront, we hope to assist corps members to confidently become acquainted with our regions before and after they join the corps.
Here are a few our unique regional offers
TFA NEVADA: University of Las Vegas (UNLV) started an accelerated Alternative Route to Licensure program that allows first year TFA Nevada corps members to complete their certification requirements and achieve their masters. Thanks to legislators, UNLV fully funded our corps members and they were able to enjoy this program at no cost. UNLV is working to secure funds to continue this strategy in the future.
TFA GREATER TULSA: In Greater Tulsa, certification costs are low, reducing the financial impact to begin your career in the classroom. Every corps member receives a $1,500 bonus following the first day of school, to bridge the gap before their initial paycheck. Corps members and alumni who pursue graduate degrees and stay in Tulsa are eligible for reduced tuition that allows participants to earn a masters in a more cost-effective way.
TFA GREATER BATON ROUGE: Teach For America corps members receive 6 semesters of free tuition at LSU to use toward graduate degrees, in education and other disciplines.
4. Factor in Student Loans & Other Education Endeavors
Minimizing student loan debt may be top of mind for you. You’re not alone.
You may be eligible to stop making payments or reduce your monthly payments on qualified student loans during your two years of service teaching in the TFA corps. Additionally, corps members who enroll in AmeriCorps, who have not already received a Segal AmeriCorps Education award, may be eligible to receive an education award if benefits are available. It can be used for federal student loan forbearance, interest accrual payments, eligible loans or future education costs.
Participating in this program, in combination with other TFA financial supports, can offer corps members and alumni financial relief, as they continue to invest in themselves and others.
5. Provide Simple Money Management Help
We partner with finance experts to support corps members and alumni in understanding how to make the most of their money.
Charles Schwab
We've teamed up with Charles Schwab and its founder to provide personal finance education to Teach For America’s teachers. We know that financial terminology can be daunting, especially when entering the workforce out of college. Schwab and TFA aim to educate new corps members with information about saving and spending, investing, credit and debt, and risk management, to give them tangible ways to manage their money with confidence.