A rebooted teaching fellowship program for University of North Carolina System schools is being criticized for a lack of participation from the state’s historically black colleges and universities.
The News & Observer reports on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s opposition to the program’s lack of diversity, saying that a lack of HBCU presence puts black and minority students and graduates in the state at a disadvantage.
NC teaching fellows selections criticized by NAACP for not including HBCUs | News & Observer
The NAACP says the lack of historically black universities among the participating schools in the teaching fellows program has a ‘discriminatory effect.’ N.C. A&T State University was the only historically black school to apply for the program. Strict selection criteria are set out in legislation.
The fellows program gives financial incentives to top students who major in education and agree to work in the state’s public schools. It will begin next year, providing scholarships to about 160 future teachers each year. Students who become teaching fellows can receive up to $8,250 per year in forgivable loans if they commit to teach in so-called STEM subjects or in special education. For each year they receive the loan, the students have to serve two years in a public school, or one year if the school is classified as low performing.
The News and Observer reports that the sole HBCU to apply for the program, North Carolina A&T, was rejected.
