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The Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB), through its charitable arm, the IAA Foundation, created the Illinois Agricultural Education Teacher Grant Program to support new agriculture teachers who complete their first year of teaching. This marks the fourth year grants were awarded.  

Read more - FarmWeek(October 6, 2020)

2020 First Year Agriculture Teacher Grant Recipients are:

*Aaron Slack, Paxton Buckley Loda High School, Paxton.
*Katlyn Post, Central Burlington High School, Burlington.
*Harley Carlson, Central Community High School, Breese.
*Jerry Brockett, Meridian High School, Macon.

To begin the grant program, IFB provided seed money, and the IAA Foundation is administering it and actively seeking more funding partners to continue adding new groups of first-year teachers. The program hopes to fund 32 teachers over 12 years.

At the end of their first year, eligible agriculture teachers are invited to apply.  Each year four new teachers are welcomed in to this 5 year grant program.  If they remain successful in the classroom for five years, they can earn up to $10,000 in personal income.  

Illinois and other states continue to cope with an ag teacher shortage. Last year, Illinois had 66 agricultural education teacher openings compared to 22 ag education college graduates. At the same time, Illinois agricultural education is experiencing growth with the opening of new and reopening once-closed high school ag programs.   

For more information about the ag teacher grant program, click here.

Congratulations to these agriculture teachers.  Thank you Illinois Farm Bureau and the IAA Foundation for providing these grants to retain agriculture teachers in the classroom.