Student financial aid: Educator Excellence Program loan assumption agreements.

Existing law establishes the Assumption Program of Loans for Education, administered by the Student Aid Commission, under which any person enrolled in a participating institution of postsecondary education, or any person who agrees to participate in a teacher trainee or teacher internship program, is eligible to enter into an agreement for loan assumption, to be redeemed pursuant to a prescribed procedure upon becoming employed as a teacher if he or she satisfies certain conditions. Existing law requires the applicant to agree, among other things, to teach full time for at least 4 consecutive academic years or on a part-time basis the equivalent of 4 consecutive academic years at an eligible school. Existing law defines "eligible school" to mean, among other things, a school that is ranked in the lowest 2 deciles on the Academic Performance Index, a measure of the performance of schools and school districts. This bill would establish the Educator Excellence Program under the administration of the Student Aid Commission. The bill would require the commission to develop procedures for the evaluation and selection of qualified applicants for participation in the program. The bill would specify eligibility criteria that participants in the program would be required to meet. The bill would authorize the issuance, under that program, of up to 6,500 agreements for the assumption of student loans in a school year, of which up to 400 would be for credentialed teachers as specified, up to a total loan assumption of $11,000 after 4 years of qualifying service in a school district that has qualified for a local control funding formula concentration grant, teaching in a subject area that has been designated by the Superintendent of Public Instruction as a current or projected area of teacher shortage. The bill would express the intent of the Legislature that this program be fully funded commencing with the Budget Act of 2015.