I Teach Act of 2009

An estimated 2,000,000 new teachers will be needed over the next decade.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, States were to recruit qualified teachers by 2006, but, according to the Secretary of Education's fifth report on teacher quality, over 30,000 teachers must have waivers.

Fourteen percent of America’s school children attend rural schools, and according to the Rural School and Community Trust 2000 report, Why Rural Matters, rural education is crucial or very important to overall education performance in 25 States, so recruitment and retention of teachers is essential.

A 2000 study by the Education Trust reports that high poverty schools are twice as likely not to have teachers certified in their fields than other schools, which highlights that high poverty schools will need special help to meet the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards was founded in 1987 as a follow up to the landmark 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, by the Carnegie Task Force on Teaching. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is an independent, nonprofit, and nonpartisan organization the mission of which is to establish high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do.

Nearly 74,000 teachers from all 50 States and the District of Columbia have completed certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, which certification is a rigorous assessment process for teachers.

In 2008, the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies, affirmed that students taught by National Board certified teachers make higher gains on achievement tests than those taught by teachers who have not applied for or have not achieved certification.

According to the most recent report on teachers salaries by the National Education Association, the average salary for a classroom teacher is $52,308, and analysis by the Economic Policy Institute shows that teachers wages have grown considerably slower than wages of college graduates in general.

To encourage teachers, through a refundable tax credit, to work in public elementary and secondary schools located in rural areas or schools with high poverty.

To provide an additional tax credit to teachers who achieve certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards in order to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers in public elementary and secondary schools.

Paragraph (2) of section 1324(b) of title 31, United States Code, is amended by inserting before the period , or from section 36A of such Code.

The table of sections for subpart C of part IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 36 the following new item: