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MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin Superintendent Jill Underly proposed $59.5 million in new investments Tuesday, Oct. 29, aimed at recruiting and retaining educators.

The announcement is part of the superintendent’s 2025-27 two-year budget that was made at La Follette High School.

A press release says that with Underly’s proposal, stipends would be paid to eligible prospective teachers to help cover expenses and reduce debt, a new state-funded grow-your-own grant program would help grow the workforce, a support program for new educators would be expanded. , and barriers to licensure would be carefully examined and reformed if necessary.

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In Dr. Underly’s budget proposal, the DPI:

• Supporting future educators by providing a $10,000 stipend to all student teachers (plus $3,000 for cooperating teachers), reducing debt and helping them cover expenses while they dedicate valuable time to learn and improve in the classroom ($46.9 million over the biennium).
• Create a stronger Develop Your Own Educator program that supports school districts with grants to use in activities that develop the teaching workforce. This includes, but is not limited to, supporting student organizations and covering costs for existing paraprofessional staff to complete licensure courses ($5 million over the biennium).
• Develop the Peer Review and Mentoring Grant Programproviding support for the development of educators during their first three years in the profession. This expansion will allow more school districts to participate Wisconsin can keep more teachers in classrooms ($7.4 million over the biennium).
• Remove barriers to becoming an educator by revising licensure requirements, such as the much-criticized Foundations of Reading Test. Pass rates on this test have fallen precipitously since 2014: only 48% of test takers passed on the first attempt, according to the most recent data, although it is not clear that the test effectively measures the ability to a teacher to teach.

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The press release states that data from Wisconsin 2022 education preparation program and workforce analysis report from the Ministry of Public Instruction, released earlier this yearfound that about four in ten (39.4%) first-year educators leave the state or profession completely within their first six years of teaching.