Effects of Student Loan Forgiveness Policies on Teacher Supply (Poster 6)

• In Event: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research
  In Invited Poster Session: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research Poster Session

Abstract

The waning prestige of the teaching profession has fueled a decline in the number of aspiring teachers entering teacher preparation programs, compounding the recruitment and retention challenges already inherent in many schools. One way to attenuate this decline is the forgiveness of student loan debt for teachers in return for their teaching service. Using an event study and difference-in-difference framework, I find that adoption of these loan forgiveness policies increases the number of students enrolled in education programs by about 10% of a standard deviation. These findings provide evidence that state-level loan forgiveness policies may be a valid policy option to strengthen the teacher pipeline, over and above federal loan forgiveness policies already in place.

Author

• Alexander J. Moran, Florida State University