Mercer’s teacher residency grant program canceled amid nationwide cuts to DEI initiatives

Beatriz Lleras felt a mixture of disbelief and disappointment when Mercer University’s Tift College of Education announced the sudden cancellation of federal funding for its GENERATE grant program last month.

The axing of Mercer’s Georgia Educators Networking to Revolutionize and Transform Education (GENERATE) program comes as the U.S. Department of Education dismantles Diversity Equity and Inclusion initiatives nationwide. 

“There’s no concern as to the impacts that this has on regular Americans,” said Lleras, who is pursuing a Master of Arts in Teaching through the program.

 The three-year teacher residency program, in partnership with five local school districts, is funded by a 2022 federal grant for $9.6 million.

The program aimed to offer residency for teachers  without certification or those changing career paths. Participants in the program may pursue a bachelor’s or master’s degree. They agree to teach for three years in a partnering school district in exchange for stipends for textbooks and free tuition. 

In a Feb. 12 letter from Mercer, the university’s college of education informed Lleras that the GENERATE grant was terminated as of Feb. 10.  Her tuition would only be funded until the end of the semester.

Lleras is part of the last cohort of students in the GENERATE program. Funding cuts come a semester earlier than the program’s planned conclusion, which would have covered participating students through December.

“None of us were planning on going into $10,000 worth of student loan debt this year,” Lleras said. 

Mercer’s letter calls the grant program a “vital resource” but states the decision is a federal one. 

The university’s letter said it’s looking into other funding sources for financial aid and scholarships, but so far Lleras has only been offered the option of a payment plan.

She believes that in the wake of book bans, reduced access to educational resources and struggling federal workers, the defunding of the GENERATE grant program is a drop in the bucket of a much larger problem.

“I think that’s the underlying sort of sense of this all,”  Lleras said. “It’s a scary time.”

It’s not about government handouts, she said, but about making good investments in the best interest of taxpayers.

“It’s not about a party. It’s not about politics. It’s literally about what the priorities of our country are at this point,” said Lleras, an English language learner coordinator for the Dublin City School District.

She feels the decision to nix the grant program was rash and should have been investigated further. 

“At the end of the day, we’re the ones that fund the government,” Lleras said. “So what are our taxes for if not to fund our communities and support the taxpayers?”