Are you a teacher with outstanding student loan debt? The Minnesota Teacher Shortage Student Loan Repayment Program is currently accepting applications to provide eligible Minnesota teachers with loan repayment assistance. To receive an award, teachers must be providing classroom instruction in a license shortage area, a rural school district, or belong to a racial or ethnic group underrepresented in the Minnesota teacher workforce.
The application is available until Aug. 31, 2023. Selected applicants can receive an award up to $1,000 in loan repayment assistance paid directly to them. Awardees are limited to $5,000 in total repayment assistance.
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Student loan repayment assistance is available for grade 5-12 Minnesota teachers who provide instruction in agricultural education. The Minnesota Agricultural Education Loan Repayment Program awards educators up to $3,000 annually in loan repayment assistance.
To be eligible, teachers must have completed an undergraduate or graduate program in agricultural education at a Minnesota-approved college or university and have outstanding qualified educational loan debt. The application is available until Sept. 30, 2023.
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The Great Minnesota Get-Together is fast approaching and our agency is gearing up to provide information and materials to students and families! Come visit our agency's booth in the Education Building located between Cosgrove Street and Snelling Avenue on the east side of the fairgrounds.
A number of helpful materials will be on hand to inform families about current and upcoming financial aid programs, state-wide initiatives, and other resources to help guide Minnesotans to their postsecondary goals. Spin a wheel and answer trivia questions to win fun prizes! We look forward to seeing you at the Minnesota State Fair on Aug. 24-Sept. 4!
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The 3.5-year federal student loan payment pause will soon come to an end, with student loan interest accrual to resume on Sept. 1, and payments due starting in October. Of the 43 million federal student loan borrowers, most have not made a payment since the pause began. Below are tips on how to proactively prepare for the repayment restart.
Loans without Repayment Plans
According to a Federal Student Aid report, there are currently 8.1 million federal student loan borrowers with at least one loan without a repayment plan, which is a significant increase from just 1.2 million borrowers in March 2020. Additionally, 5.8 million of those borrowers have no reported repayment plan on any of their loans in deferment, forbearance or repayment. These borrowers will need to enroll in a repayment plan
once repayment resumes.
How to Prepare for Repayment
When repayment restarts, borrowers will be placed on the 10-year standard student loan repayment plan unless they contact their servicer to enroll in a repayment plan that better fits their financial situation. If you are unsure of who your servicer, borrowers can find servicer information for all of their loans on the Federal Student Aid website. Ahead of repayment restart, borrowers are encouraged to refamiliarize themselves with the details of their servicer, their current repayment plan and any additional repayment options that may be available.
If you are a borrower with federal student loans, click to visit the Department of Education website to learn more about what to do to restart payments and steps you can take to mitigate negative impacts if you cannot make payments immediately.
As a reminder, the repayment restart affects federal student loans only, while student loans issued by the State and private lenders did not have a pause on payments and interest rate accrual.
The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) has established the Educator Workforce and Development Center to create more focus on programs to support districts, schools, communities and Tribal Nations in work to recruit, diversify, develop and retain educators in order to build the best teaching workforce in the nation.
The Center will support Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan's Due North Education Plan by supporting programs designed to expand and diversity the state's educator workforce in partnership with other state agencies and the education community. Read the full press release here.
In Minnesota, only 5.9 percent of our teacher workforce identify as a teacher of color or American Indian teacher (TOCAIT), whereas 37.7% percent of our students identify as students of color or American Indian students. As a state, we are working to increase and diversify the teacher workforce while supporting and retaining the teachers we have. The Minnesota Office of Higher Education, along with MDE and the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board, administers a number of programs to recruit, retain and diversity the teacher workforce. Read more on the MDE website.
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