Madison Reporter

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announced that $1 million in funding will be made available through the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) for funding the Teacher Training and Recruitment Grant Program.

According to a report by WKOW, the funding is through the DWD Expanded Wisconsin Fast Forward program. The training is for teachers in low income and urban areas. Wisconsin nonprofit agencies are able to apply for as much as $500,000 for recruiting, training and licensing teachers.

“I’ve always said that what’s best for our kids is what’s best for our state, and that’s why we have prioritized providing resources to our educators and our schools to ensure every kid in every community has access to a quality public education,” Evers said.

According to a release by the DWD, the funding was originally proposed in the 2019-2021 biennial budget for $1.2 million, but it was not included in the budget when it was approved. This was intended to triple the size of continuing grants to teachers in high poverty urban schools, as well as double the grants for teachers at high poverty schools in Wisconsin.

In 2020 the program awarded a pair of grants for about $500,000 each for the City Forward Collective in Milwaukee and the Urban League of Greater Madison, which helped train 140 and 32 teachers, respectively. The program was for recruiting teachers in high need areas of special education and English Learner/bilingual education. Recruits of the program earned credits toward licensing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education or Edgewood College.

“Investing in our teachers so that they can provide high quality education is an investment in both our current workforce and future workforce generations,” DWD Secretary-Designee Amy Pechacek said.

Applications for funding can be made through March 4.