Senate File 304 - Introduced
SENATE FILE 304
BY CARLIN and GOODWIN
A BILL FOR
1 An Act relating to applicant priority and grant award amounts
2 under the teach Iowa scholar program.
3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:
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1 Section 1. Section 261.110, subsections 2 and 4, Code 2021,
2 are amended to read as follows:
3 2. An Iowa resident or nonresident applicant shall be
4 eligible for a teach Iowa scholar grant if the applicant
5 meets all of the criteria specified under, or established in
6 accordance with, subsection 3. Priority shall be given first
7 to applicants seeking to renew their grant awards and who
8 continue to meet the original priority criteria under which
9 such applicants’ first awards were received; then to applicants
10 who are graduates of approved practitioner preparation
11 programs, by academic year, with the most recent academic year
12 graduates given priority; then to applicants who are minority
13 persons and residents of Iowa; then to applicants who are
14 residents of Iowa. A person is ineligible for this program if
15 the person receives a forgivable loan under section 261.111 or
16 loan forgiveness under section 261.112. For purposes of this
17 section, “minority person” means the same as defined in section
18 15.102.
19 4. A selected applicant who meets all of the eligibility
20 requirements of this section shall be eligible for a teach
21 Iowa scholar grant for each year of full-time employment
22 completed in this state as a teacher for a school district,
23 charter school, area education agency, or accredited nonpublic
24 school. A teach Iowa scholar grant shall not exceed four seven
25 thousand five hundred dollars per year per recipient. Grants
26 awarded under this section shall not exceed a total of twenty
27 thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars per recipient over
28 a five-year period. If a selected applicant has received a
29 federally guaranteed Stafford loan under the federal family
30 education loan program or the federal direct loan program,
31 a federal direct plus loan, or a federal Perkins loan, the
32 selected applicant may elect to have the commission make
33 payment under the program directly to the selected applicant’s
34 student loan holder.
35 EXPLANATION
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1 The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
2 the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
3 This bill modifies the teach Iowa scholar program to give
4 first priority to applicants seeking renewal of their grant
5 awards, then to applicants who are graduates of approved
6 practitioner preparation programs, then to applicants who are
7 minority persons, with subsequent priority to residents of
8 Iowa, and raises the annual grant limitation from $4,000 to
9 $7,500 and the total grant limitation over a five-year period
10 from $20,000 to $37,500.
11 Currently, priority is given to residents of Iowa.
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