A successful teaching recruitment program is ending after 25 years. The North Carolina Teaching Fellows program provided scholarships to the best and brightest prospective teachers.
The Teaching Fellows program is one of many that is being cut by the State Legislature. Since 1986, it allowed thousands of teachers to go to college and then go on to teach at public schools across North Carolina. The class that enters this year will be the last one to earn state-provided scholarships. But one university, Elon, will continue the program on its campus. Teaching Fellows at Elon will get $4500 a year, about $2,000 less than the state gave. The scholarship will also be available to students without a requirement of teaching in-state. Elon administrators expect about 2 dozen students to be teaching fellows each year, starting in 2012.