When it was first launched in 2016, the Wavemaker Fellowship was designed to be an incentive to persuade new, highly trained college graduates working in specialized industries to stay in Rhode Island.
The program offered to reimburse thousands of dollars of student loan debt for sought-after workers, particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, collectively known as STEM.
Now a new group has been added to the mix: educators.
Until March 5, the R.I. Commerce Corp. will be accepting applications for the Wavemaker Fellowship from recent graduates in teaching, along with those in STEM fields, design fields and in health care.
It’s hoped that the expanded eligibility will help close the growing shortage of teachers needed to fill classrooms across the state, although some acknowledge that it should be part of a larger recruitment and retention effort.
“We fully support any program that will grow the aspiring educator labor force,” said Mary K. Barden, executive director of the National Education Association Rhode Island. “But our educator shortage issue is multifaceted. Too often ... policymakers will rely on incentive programs for recruitment but not retention, creating a revolving door of educators. That is not good for the profession, and it is not good for the students.”
Another potential issue: The expansion of eligibility for the Wavemaker program comes as the state faces a $250 million projected budget deficit next fiscal year. Indeed, Gov. Daniel J. McKee has submitted a $14.2 billion state budget proposal for fiscal 2026 that would allocate $1 million to the fellowship, down from $4.1 million in fiscal 2025.
The McKee administration said the allocation will cover refundable tax credits issued to those in the program now, as well as 85 new “fellows” in fiscal 2026, up to $6,000 per year for up to four years. Fellows must show they’ve worked at a Rhode Island-based employer for a 12-month period for each year they earn the credit.
Those approved for the fellowship are awarded refundable tax credits depending on the degree earned, with associate degree holders capped annually at $1,000; bachelor’s degrees at $4,000; and master’s degrees at $6,000.
Among teachers, more than half report taking out loans to pay for college, with an average outstanding balance of $58,700 as of 2021, according to the National Education Association.
Clearly, there is a shortage of educators.
According to research by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, up until 2018, Providence could expect to have around 160 positions to fill at the start of each school year. By 2022, that number had climbed to 300, and it has continued to grow.
Barden and others have been concerned for years about the decline in the number of students entering pre-service educator programs in Rhode Island’s colleges, which has been credited to the rising cost of undergraduate degrees and a regulatory burden that includes “rigorous” student teaching requirements.
The expanded Wavemaker program is not just open to traditional classroom teachers. Awardees can be counselors, school psychologists, social workers, speech and language pathologists, reading specialists, special education teachers, nursing teachers, and English as a second language or bilingual dual-language instructors, among others.
“Scholarship programs can lessen the financial burden, and we welcome that relief for our aspiring educators,” Barden said. “Addressing both recruitment and retention are key to solving our educator shortages.”
R.I. Commerce says preference is given to those for whom the award will play a substantial role in keeping them in Rhode Island, represents “last dollar” funding or who demonstrate the greatest value to the state’s economy.
Three years ago, the program expanded to include graduates going into health care, another sector suffering from severe labor shortages.
In addition to the financial benefit, the Wavemaker website boasts that fellows can participate in several “personal and professional” development programs, networking opportunities and community events.
But some already in the classroom say more is needed.
The retention problem is particularly acute for teachers in the STEM subject, which Annenberg reports “has been a perpetual weak spot in public schools’ teaching rosters” for years.
“I’m not sure [Wavemaker] will help much,” said Joseph Mazzone, president of the Rhode Island Computer Science Teachers Association.
Mazzone says much of the problem is in the pipeline.
“Of course, an argument can be made that most of the issues are around retention,” he said. “But not enough young people see an advantage of choosing education as a career option. [Often] when trying to hire a math teacher, computer science teacher, or career and tech teacher, there is nobody to hire and retain in the first place.”
Mazzone said because teacher contracts use a compensation “step system” with first-year educators beginning at the bottom, the status quo “is not acceptable if we want our students to have the best of the best for teachers.”
This is compounded by the fact that acceptance into the Wavemaker program and the debt relief that comes with it arrives after graduation, and candidates who have already taken advanced math or computer science courses have long known they can become software engineers, for example, where starting salaries approach six-figures.
“The choice ends with the same debt,” Mazzone said. “But the difference is better work-life balance and pay. What would you choose?”
Today, the average salary for a teacher in Rhode Island is about $79,000, compared to more than $92,000 earned in Massachusetts, according to NEA.
In the short-term, Rhode Island would do well to, at a minimum, put itself on par with its neighbors, Barden says.
“Rhode Island must broaden our strategy to include solutions that address the root of staffing challenges and the retention of qualified, high-quality teaching professionals in our schools,” she said.
(Correction: An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect timeframe for applying for the Wavemaker Fellowship. Applications are due by March 5.)
