Michigan to offer incentives to math, science teachers

Francis X. Donnelly / The Detroit News

Detroit -- Michigan will be one of the first states to participate in a national program that encourages math and science teachers to work in urban school districts, Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced Friday.

Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the program will pay for a master's degree in education in return for teaching at an urban school for three years.

The $16.7 million program seeks to address the shortage of math and science teachers in such school districts, Granholm said.

"We want to keep young people here (in Michigan), young mathematicians, young scientists," Granholm said during a press conference at the Detroit Science Center.

During the five-year program, 240 prospective teachers will receive $30,000 stipends for the cost of obtaining their master's degrees.

The first group of prospective teachers will be selected in spring 2011.

During the program, which will be run by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the group will work to revamp the education programs at Michigan colleges.

The Wilson foundation wants the colleges' education programs to work with math and science departments to improve the teaching of those subjects.

The foundation also wants the training of the prospective teachers to include more time teaching at the high schools before receiving their degree.

fdonnelly@detnews.com (313) 223-4186