DeKalb Times

Republican state Rep. Jeff Keicher (R-Sycamore) is hoping to have a bill that will help Illinois residents interested in teaching careers on the House floor by the end of April.

Keicher recently proposed House Bill 3364, known as the Monetary Award Program (MAP), which will allow students who have already earned their bachelor’s degrees to become eligible for MAP grants created to help them earn their teaching certificates and address the state’s growing teacher shortage. Keicher said that part of his motivation for filing the bill stems from remembering what his sister had to go through in becoming a teacher, including having to wait tables while working her way through school.

“And I know that many teachers or people who go back [to school] wanting to go into the teaching field face that same issue,” Keicher said in a press release. “It’s just expanding the eligibility to people in need for people that are going out to help our students.”

The proposal hardly qualifies as a give-away, Keicher said, adding that MAP grant eligibility requirements will apply, and that recipients of program funds have to commit to actually going into the profession and teaching for a minimum of five years.

The bill has now been referred to the House Rules Committee.