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Gov. Markell recognizes T.E.A.C.H. participants

Delaware Public Media

Gov. Jack Markell (D-Delaware) recognized participants of the T.E.A.C.H. program Tuesday at a joint meeting of the Delaware Early Childhood Council and Wilmington Early Care and Education Council.

The program offers scholarships for professionals working in licensed early care and education programs throughout the state. In particular, the program supports working parents and first-generation students to continue their own education, and complete an Associate’s or Bachelor’s Degree.

Markell says he was touched by the stories told by several T.E.A.C.H. participants, including Tina Edwards’.

"It changed my life," Edwards said at the meeting. "I am in the early child care field and I wanted to stay in it, but I didn’t have the tools I needed to stay in it. And I couldn’t go back to college without being a financial burden to my family. So T.E.A.C.H. enabled me to do that."

Edwards was fifty when she went back to school. Through the program, she became the first person in her family to go to college.

 

Your willingness to go back to school and the example that you are setting to your own kids about what’s possible," said Markell.  "It doesn’t matter if you’re fifty years old. You can go make. And you can make a brighter future. I thought that was fantastic."

 

Participants also benefit financially from the program.   Most report a 7.5% increase in income after completing it.

The T.E.A.C.H. program worked with over 200 early early childhood professionals this year.  Most are earning less than $15 per hour.  76 percent are married with children and 41 percent are the first family member to attend college.

 

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