Want to become a teacher? NC may now pay your costs to attend more universities.

T. Keung Hui
·3 min read
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Appalachian State University and East Carolina University are joining a state program that helps pay the college costs for aspiring North Carolina teachers.

The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Commission announced Thursday it is adding App State and ECU to its program starting in the 2024-25 school year. They’ll be among 10 institutions that provide up to $10,000 a year in financial aid for college students who agree to teach certain subjects in North Carolina public schools.

The news comes at a time when the state’s public schools are dealing with challenging teacher shortages. There were nearly 3,600 teaching vacancies across the state at the start of this school year, The News & Observer previously reported.

“Welcoming the next generation of educators is one of the most important things we do as a public university,” said UNC System President Peter Hans in a news release. “Now that two of the UNC System’s largest educator preparation programs are included in Teaching Fellows, we hope to see the teacher pipeline expand to help match the substantial need in North Carolina’s school districts.”

Scaled-back program

The Teaching Fellows program was originally created in 1986. It used to be offered in schools throughout the state for people who were willing to teach any subject.

The General Assembly cut the program in 2011. Lawmakers voted in 2017 to restore a scaled-back version for those willing to teach in the subjects of special education or STEM (science, technology, education and math).

The Appalachian State University campus in Boone. ECU and Appalachian State University are being added to the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program.
The Appalachian State University campus in Boone. ECU and Appalachian State University are being added to the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program.

It’s a competitive, merit-based application process to become a Teaching Fellow. There are 277 students in the program this school year.

The future teachers repay their forgivable loans by teaching in the state’s public schools after graduation.

In last year’s budget, lawmakers expanded the program to include elementary school teachers. The budget also authorized the Teaching Fellows Commission to add two more institutions, bringing the total number to 10.

Improving geographic diversity

The Teaching Fellows Commission says Appalachian State and ECU were unanimously selected from among the 15 institutions that applied to join.

The commission says it judged proposals on a number of factors, such as an institution’s potential impact on geographic diversity and number of applicants.

“We are excited to be able to address the deserts in Teaching Fellows institutions that existed in the eastern and western parts of the state with the naming of these two institutions to the NCTF program, Commission Chair Joy Smith said in a news release.

One of the complaints about the Teaching Program is that the eight current institutions are heavily concentrated in the central and southern part of the state. N.C State University historically draws around half of the program’s students.

The other schools in the Teaching Fellows program are:

▪ Elon University

▪ Fayetteville State University

▪ Meredith College

▪ North Carolina A&T State University

▪ NC State University

▪ UNC-Chapel Hill

▪ UNC-Charlotte

▪ UNC-Pembroke

Become a NC Teaching Fellow

Go to https://myapps.northcarolina.edu/ncteachingfellows/ for more information on the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program.

Staff writer Korie Dean contributed to this report.