COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) – A South Carolina program designed to help the state’s teacher shortage and promote teacher retention isn’t working, according to a new report from the South Carolina Education Oversight Committee.

The South Carolina Teacher Loan Program (TLP) got its start in 1984, and was created to encourage students to become teachers.

In exchange for teaching in state public schools for a certain number of years, recipients can have their loans forgiven.

“We’re trying to figure out exactly why that is happening, why teachers aren’t making it into the classroom,” explained Tenell Felder, the communications manager for the Education Oversight Committee.

According to program guidelines, for every one year of undergraduate schooling, one has to work a year as a teacher in South Carolina.

“If people aren’t willing to take on the debt knowing that four years down the line it can be forgiven, then we’ve got to ask ourselves the hard question of why they are not willing to take on that opportunity?” asked Patrick Kelly with the Palmetto State Teachers Association.

A recent review showed that only about one in three participants stay in the classroom long enough to get their loans fully forgiven.

The rest end up repaying the loans with interest just like traditional student loans.

There are three types of loans you can receive in the program:

• Type 1 – Students enrolled in teacher preparation programs at public or private colleges. Freshmen and sophomores can borrow up to $2,500 per year, while juniors, seniors, and graduate students can borrow up to $7,500.
• Type 2 – Introduced more than a decade after the program was founded, but this loan supports adults switching to a teaching career. Participants can borrow up to $15,000 per year and up to $60,000 total.
• Type 3 – Exclusively for students in the Program of Alternative Certification for Educators (PACE).

While the loan program offers support, there are other financial aid options available to students in South Carolina.

For example, the HOPE Scholarship, Life Scholarship and the Palmetto Fellows Scholarship. The scholarships are state-funded, but don’t require students have a career commitment like the Teacher Loan Program does.

According to the report, only 8% of students in teacher education programs used the TLP, while 43% have one of the other three.

“One of my former students was having a bad experience over the last two years at the school where she was working [and] she was ready to walk away from the profession,” recalled Kelly. “I encouraged her to give the profession one more chance by finding a new school, with new leadership, with new school climate. She’s at that new school this year, and she’s thriving.”

When teachers don’t fulfill their commitment, their repayments go into a Revolving Loan Fund. The fund was $8.6 million in 2018 to over $23 million as of 2024.

Lawmakers have tried to put some of the money to better use, even passing a budget proviso in 2024 that requires $5 million in funding to go toward loan forgiveness for teachers in rural districts.

So far, the South Carolina Student Loan Corporation has not implemented the plan.

Lawmakers said they need to keep spreading the word about this program and encouraging people to join it.

“We need to continue to strive to make the teaching profession as much of a professional, profession as possible, give them the pay that, goes along with the professional pay and support them as much as possible,” said State Representative Neal Collins (R – Pickens).

Felder added, “That could be a great opportunity for students not having to worry about having that debt coming out of school.”

As South Carolina continues to face a teacher shortage, education leaders and lawmakers agree they need to continue to make teacher retention a priority.