Title: Diversify Act
Policy area: Education

Summary:
Diversifying by Investing in Educators and Students to Improve Outcomes For Youth Act or the Diversify Act
This bill raises the maximum amount for grants made under the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program. The TEACH program awards grants to college students who plan to teach in low-income areas.
The bill also exempts the TEACH program from sequestration, which is a process of automatic, usually across-the-board spending reductions under which budgetary resources are permanently cancelled to enforce specific budget policy goals.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3158 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3158

To remove college cost as a barrier to every student having access to a 
 well-prepared and diverse educator workforce, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 8, 2020

 Mr. Booker (for himself, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Brown, Mrs. Gillibrand, 
  Ms. Harris, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Markey, Mr. Merkley, and Ms. Warren) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
          Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To remove college cost as a barrier to every student having access to a 
 well-prepared and diverse educator workforce, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Diversifying by Investing in 
Educators and Students to Improve Outcomes For Youth Act'' or the 
``Diversify Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Schools predominantly enrolling historically 
        underserved students are often disproportionately impacted by 
        teacher shortages.
            (2) Data shows that between 2009 and 2014, teacher 
        education enrollments dropped from 691,000 to 451,000, a 35-
        percent reduction. This amounts to a decrease of almost 240,000 
        professionals on their way to becoming teachers in the year 
        2014, as compared to 2009.
            (3) Research suggests that service scholarship programs 
        like the TEACH Grant Program are successful when they are both 
        administratively manageable and when subsidies are large enough 
        to substantially offset training costs. Efforts to increase the 
        TEACH Grant award amount must be combined with efforts to 
        ensure that the program is administratively manageable. In 
        order for the TEACH Grant Program to meet its full potential, 
        the research is clear that both criteria need to be addressed.
            (4) The TEACH Grant's award amount has not increased since 
        its creation in the bipartisan College Cost Reduction and 
        Access Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-84). In addition, due to the 
        Budget Control Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-25), the maximum 
        amount of grant aid available under the TEACH Grant Program of 
        $4,000 a year has been cut for a majority of the program's 
        existence. This comes at a time when the yearly full cost of a 
        public 4-year college for an in-State student exceeds $20,000. 
        Further, more than two-thirds of individuals entering the field 
        of education borrow money to pay for their higher education, 
        resulting in an average debt of about $20,000 for those with a 
        bachelor's degree and $50,000 for those with a master's degree.
            (5) Grant programs can eliminate or reduce the need to 
        borrow student loans in order to afford a college education. 
        This is important because a college student's potential debt 
        burden influences the student's decisions about what profession 
        to enter, with the result that the student is less likely to 
        pursue a career in education or take other low-paying jobs 
        after graduation if the student expects to incur more debt. 
        This is especially true for students of color, who, according 
        to a recent report, are more likely to come from families that 
        are unable to contribute financially to their higher education.
            (6) Students with disabilities, including students of color 
        with disabilities, are also likely to accrue significant 
        student loan debt. This often results from limited ability to 
        work while in school due to the increased time needed for 
        coursework.
            (7) Teachers of color face unique barriers to entering and 
        staying in the profession. For example, teachers of color are 
        more likely to enter teaching through alternative pathways due 
        to the high cost of traditional teacher preparation programs 
        and the debt burden faced by college students of color. Lower 
        quality pathways can result in less effective teaching and high 
        turnover rates. Research shows that candidates who receive 
        comprehensive preparation are 2 to 3 times more likely to stay 
        in teaching than those who receive little training. In many 
        cases, however, teachers of color are more likely to begin 
        teaching without having completed comprehensive preparation and 
        entering instead through alternative routes that often skip 
        student teaching and key coursework, leaving teachers to learn 
        on the job.
            (8) Research shows that recruiting and retaining a diverse 
        teacher workforce is key to improving outcomes for all students 
        and for closing achievement gaps. While White students also 
        benefit by learning from teachers of color, the impact is 
        especially significant for students of color, who have higher 
        test scores, are more likely to graduate high school, and more 
        likely to succeed in college when they have had teachers of 
        color who serve as role models and support their attachment to 
        school and learning.

SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO THE HIGHER EDUCATION ACT OF 1965.

    Section 420M of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070g-
1) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(1), by striking ``$4,000'' and 
        inserting ``$8,000''; and
            (2) in subsection (d)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1)(B), by striking ``$16,000'' 
                and inserting ``$32,000''; and
                    (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ``$8,000'' and 
                inserting ``$16,000''.

SEC. 4. AMENDMENT TO THE BALANCED BUDGET AND DEFICIT CONTROL ACT.

    Section 255(h) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control 
Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 905(h)) is amended by inserting after the item 
relating to ``Supplemental Security Income Program (28-0406-0-1-609).'' 
the following new item:
            ``TEACH Grants under subpart 9 of part A of title IV of the 
        Higher Education Act of 1965.''.
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