Michelle Falter (Education), Emma Peterson ’25, Evan Larson ’25 and Cara Korth ’25 visited Wisconsin’s capital building on March 6, 2025.

For the Future of Education: Student Teachers Make Their Voices Heard

by Eva Westein ’25

In early March, three St. Norbert College education students and Michelle Falter, director of teacher education and associate professor, traveled to Wisconsin’s capital building to talk with legislators about passing legislation to begin providing financial support to student teachers during their practicum periods. The meeting was part of “Coffee and Conversation with Wisconsin Teacher Educators,” an event put on by the Wisconsin Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (WACTE). Along with representatives from many other Wisconsin schools, Falter and her students aimed to put faces to the issues and hear real stories from students to help lawmakers work toward eliminating financial barriers for future student teachers and to support cooperating mentor teachers. 

Cara Korth ’25, Evan Larson ’25 and Emma Peterson ’25 couldn’t pass up the opportunity to represent and advocate for current and future education students. “Although I have already completed my student-teaching experience, I understand that there will be many student teachers in the cohorts behind my own who can benefit from the changes being proposed by legislation. I haven’t seen many opportunities arise of this nature where current students can advocate for change, so I was honored to be considered to attend such an event,” said Peterson. 

Student teachers are required to work full-time in the classroom without pay, handling all the responsibilities of the job while still paying college tuition. Unlike internships and work experiences with compensation in other fields, student teachers typically do not have time for additional paid work. This setup makes it easy for student teachers to fall into financial hardship, and for many, fall further into debt. Several midwest states have recognized this financial strain and now provide stipends or grants for student teachers. At this point, Wisconsin is the only Midwestern state to not have designated financial aid for future educators. Governor Tony Evers and state legislators have worked to allot some budget for financial assistance before, but funding has yet to be approved.

WACTE is requesting that Wisconsin state lawmakers pass legislation to provide stipends of $10,000 for student teachers to support future educators while they complete the required student-teaching component of their educator preparation programs. Additionally, WACTE would like this legislation to provide $2,000 stipends to cooperating mentor teachers in recognition of the additional time they dedicate to these student teachers and the expertise they provide through the mentorship process.

Students participating in the event had a variety of backgrounds and a variety of student-teaching experiences, and they talked to legislators about each of their unique stories. For some students, like Korth, one of the biggest challenges was getting to and from her student-teaching placement every day. Larson struggled with balancing professional responsibilities with maintaining an active social life, while Peterson had to balance student teaching full-time hours with an additional part-time job. 

Across the board, many of these stressors could be minimized with additional financial support for students during their time as student teachers. “It’s very much a case-by-case basis, which is another point that we tried to get across to a lot of the legislators down in Madison, everyone has their own reason for why this would be very helpful. For some people it’s paying the mortgage every month, for others, it’s maybe something as simple as buying groceries or gas or buying a vehicle to be able to do student teaching, and I think with that case-by-case basis idea in mind, everyone would need it for something different depending on their current situation, so that flexibility piece is huge,” explained Larson. 

Student representatives from public and private institutions spoke with two to four legislators each during their time at the capital. St. Norbert College’s student representatives spent most of their time with Democratic legislators Tip McGuire and Lori Palmeri, focusing on helping them understand the perspectives of current student teachers. “Numbers tell one story, but hearing the testimonies of people who have actually had the chance to go through it is a totally different thing,” said Larson. 

“I hope that legislators understand the impact that student teachers have. I don’t want to speak for all legislators, but from my previous experiences, I would say that many of them don’t have a connection to working in education other than their own experiences going through school,” explained Peterson. Korth hopes their stories show the legislators how urgent this issue is becoming for Wisconsin. “Especially if you are losing teachers and there is talk about getting rid of the Department of Education, we need educators now more than ever, and if we are not able to provide them with the funding that they need to support them through their student-teaching semester, that could draw them away from that profession altogether,” she noted.

According to Falter, the next steps after participating in “Coffee and Conversation with Wisconsin Teacher Educators” with WATCE include teacher preparation directors and deans reaching out to representatives in their area. Teacher preparation directors and deans will also be sending lawmakers talking points and inviting them to individual meetings. Additionally, anyone can help support the cause and make their voices heard by reaching out to local representatives and sharing personal stories of financial challenges with teaching and student teaching.

April 7, 2025