--- title: Teacher Appreciation Day: What Congress Can Do description: Senators Orrin Hatch and Mark Warner offer suggestions to Congress on teacher loan repayment and elevating educator preparation canonical: https://time.com/4321234/congress-teacher-appreciation/ author: Sen. Orrin G. Hatch article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-06T16:17:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:51.095Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Senators Hatch and Warner: What Congress Can Do to Make Every Day Teacher Appreciation Day og:description: Invest in teachers og:url: https://time.com/4321234/congress-teacher-appreciation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17f0f6faa748033d/69889236524fc02590df7e1b/classroom.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5628 og:image:height: 3166 og:image:alt: classroom.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Senators Hatch and Warner: What Congress Can Do to Make Every Day Teacher Appreciation Day twitter:description: Invest in teachers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17f0f6faa748033d/69889236524fc02590df7e1b/classroom.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Senators Hatch and Warner: What Congress Can Do to Make Every Day Teacher Appreciation Day > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Teaching Tech in High School [Watch (HLS stream): Teaching Tech in High School](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/M6bkzP0I.m3u8) (3:20)  _Published 2015-08-20. Apex High School helps students get ahead by teaching in-demand technology skills in the classroom._ by [Sen. Orrin G. Hatch](https://time.com/author/sen-orrin-g-hatch/) and [Sen. Mark Warner](https://time.com/author/sen-mark-warner/) May 6, 2016 4:17 PM UTC  School children in uniforms in class with tablets School children in uniforms in class with tablets Getty Images by [Sen. Orrin G. Hatch](https://time.com/author/sen-orrin-g-hatch/) and [Sen. Mark Warner](https://time.com/author/sen-mark-warner/) May 6, 2016 4:17 PM UTC Teachers touch lives and transform communities by helping children realize their full potential. We believe America’s educators deserve greater recognition and support for their service, which is why we are joining millions of families across the country in commemorating [National Teacher Appreciation Week](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/05/03/its-teacher-appreciation-week-why-some-teachers-dont-exactly-appreciate-it/). This week, and throughout the year, we can show teachers our appreciation by ensuring that they have the resources they need to succeed—both in life and in the classroom. To that end, we have spearheaded efforts in Congress to bolster the teaching profession. Just last summer, we introduced the [Teacher Loan Repayment Act](https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/s1892/text) (TELORA), a bipartisan bill that will make it easier for teachers to pay off their student loans. Our legislation improves loan forgiveness options for educators in several important ways: First, it provides teachers entering high-needs schools with a monthly loan repayment that continues for up to six years, or for the length of the teacher’s employment. This monthly loan repayment increases each year an educator spends teaching—from $250 in years one and two up to $400 by years five and six. By increasing repayment amounts over time, we can incentivize and reward teachers who choose to stay in the classroom. This reform will help our most promising educators supplement their often paltry paychecks and alleviate the burden of student debt. Second, our bill removes the current patchwork of wasteful loan assistance programs and replaces the current mess with one streamlined process that results in a single monthly sum for teachers. This periodic lump sum not only supplements a teacher’s pay in the cash-strapped period after graduation; it also eliminates much of the complexity, uncertainty, and delay that plagues existing loan forgiveness options. The promise of consistent and immediate loan assistance will also benefit students by encouraging more talented teachers to stay in the classroom. Ultimately, this reform will improve our schools and address the needs of students and teachers alike. Leveraging education dollars to attract, support, and retain high-quality teachers is an investment that will yield meaningful returns for decades to come. In addition to reforming the loan repayment process, we must also increase professional development opportunities for educators. The first few years in the classroom can be overwhelming for many teachers, but we can support them by using valuable federal resources to expand access to education training programs. With this goal in mind, we helped author the [Elevating Educator Preparation through Innovation Act](http://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2016/4/hatch-bennet-cornyn-warner-introduce-bill-to-better-prepare-teachers-for-the-classroom). This bill allows schools in high-needs districts the ability to partner with a broader range of organizations to provide more professional development opportunities for educators and help prepare them for a career in the classroom. In short, this proposal ensures that teachers have greater access to the resources they need to thrive in their professions and inspire a new generation of Americans. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which passed Congress last fall, also strengthens teacher training programs by allowing schools to use limited federal dollars to fund professional development opportunities for teachers of _every_ subject—not just the “core academic subjects” outlined in No Child Left Behind. ESSA represents a massive education overhaul that scraps the unworkable, outdated, and overbearing policies of No Child Left Behind by returning decision-making power to the states. Perhaps most importantly, this reform eliminates many of the onerous waiver requirements surrounding teacher evaluations, allowing educators greater flexibility to tailor their instruction to the needs of individual students. Utah’s education leaders—not distant Washington bureaucrats—are best equipped to help our teachers flourish. These reforms will aid state policymakers in that endeavor. Educators expend significant time and emotional energy helping our children succeed. We should repay this vital service by investing in teachers to ensure they are able to develop professionally. This is just one of many ways we can show teachers our appreciation. ## Transcript You can be the smartest person in the room but if you don't know how to communicate your ideas it's really not going to take you very far. With AOIT we work on a team, get our ideas across, then present it in a professional manner. This is the Academy of Information Technology, it is an IT technology themed academy, where students go through four years of high school classes. And that technology is integrated into their core classes also. It's important for high school students to learn STEM skills, programming skills, because there are a huge number of analytics- based jobs in the workplace. And there are not enough people to fill them. And so we are taking high school students, freshmen. We're trying to get people skilled up in STEM subjects at every level. [ MUSIC ] There are two primary tracks in AOIT. One is a web development, video production track. The other track is a computer programming track. The students are grouped together at the beginning of their freshman year, and they kinda stay together in these classes so they become Familiar with each other. But they also form bonds that they're gonna keep for the next four years. Anyways he really gives you the backbone to be able to work on a team, resolve conflicts, be able to get things done. And really teaches you leadership skills to make sure everyone is held accountable. The sense of professionalism that we get is part of AOIT. The networking skills we develop, the communication skills that we develop, I think that's one of the biggest things that AOIT has to offer. All of our students have to do a work based learning experience, and what's happening is the businesses are coming to see that our students, because of the soft skills preparation I will offer them value. So here at SAS we are in the process of building our intern program really for the pipeline of future talent into the organization. And we're seeing the AOIT students as building that pipeline for us and bringing in that new, innovative, fresh thought from students that's really helping us take our worker [ UNKNOWN ] to the next level. With AOIT and the soft skills I developed I was able to actually land an internship here for two years and currently I will be a year round student throughout college. I'm given the opportunity to work throughout the year. I can make my own hours and still contribute to SAS. One of the really good things that we've seen is that some of the soft skills that they teach them at the high school, I think really enable them to communicate well. And that really helps us because we can get going fast on projects and give them work to do. It's pretty amazing. I'm interning at NC New Schools through my programming classes that I've taken. And just like Working with other people. I've been able to bounce ideas off of Megan, my other coworker, and understand the basic building blocks of what I'm trying to learn here. It's been really great to be able to know I'm doing meaningful work and to see the progression throughout. To start a project and to finish it and to see how it actually goes from start to end. I do feel like I have a little bit of a leg up, I know a lot of people don't have this kind of experience. So, just having that understanding of the fact that there is a program out here like this and just giving a head start to kids who have the chance of doing it, definitely helps with my future career goals. 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