PATHS Act Authorizes $500M Grant to Fund High-Quality Tutoring and Pay College Students to Teach

The “Partnering Aspiring Teachers with High-need Schools to Tutor Act of 2025,” or PATHS to Tutor Act, establishes a new competitive grant program, authorized for $500 million, aimed at boosting student achievement while simultaneously strengthening the teacher pipeline. This bill is essentially setting up a massive federal investment to fund partnerships between local schools and university teacher preparation programs (EPPs) to deliver highly structured, intensive tutoring in the schools that need it most. The goal is to tackle two problems at once: student learning gaps and the teacher shortage.

The Gold Standard of Tutoring Gets Funded

Forget the image of a volunteer helping out after school once a month; this bill defines High-Quality Tutoring with some serious requirements. To qualify for the grant, tutoring must be hyper-focused: one-on-one or in small groups, with a maximum ratio of 1 tutor to 4 students. Crucially, the tutoring needs to happen multiple times per week for a full class period, ideally during the regular school day. This isn’t simple remediation; the bill requires plans to accelerate learning without resorting to tracking or negative labeling of students, which is a high bar for implementation. For a parent, this means their child in a hard-to-staff school could receive the kind of intensive, frequent academic support usually reserved for expensive private programs.

Building the Teacher Pipeline While Earning Cash

One of the most interesting provisions is how this bill addresses the future workforce. The grants prioritize programs that use tutors who are college students enrolled in EPPs, especially those attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities or other minority-serving institutions. If you’re a college student studying education, this bill creates a direct, paid pathway to gain classroom experience. Grant funds can be used for tutor stipends and mentor support. Even better, the bill mandates coordination with the Corporation for National and Community Service to ensure these tutoring positions qualify for national service educational awards upon completion. So, a student could get paid a stipend while tutoring, gain invaluable experience, and then receive an educational award to help pay off student loans—a solid win for aspiring educators.

Where the Money Goes and Who Gets It

The $500 million authorized for this program is competitive, meaning consortia—a required partnership between a school district and a university—must submit detailed plans to win the funding. The bill ensures that the vast majority of the money, at least 85 percent, must go directly to supporting students and tutors, covering stipends, transportation, meals, and instructional materials. This limits administrative bloat and keeps the focus on the classroom. The grant process specifically targets “hard-to-staff” and “high-need” schools, which are defined by high teacher turnover and concentrations of new teachers. This means the funding is strategically aimed at the schools facing the biggest operational challenges.

The Practical Challenges of Implementation

While the intent is excellent, there are logistical hurdles. For school administrators, carving out “a full class period” multiple times a week for small-group tutoring during an already packed school day is a significant scheduling challenge. Additionally, the bill requires the grant funds to supplement and not supplant existing tutoring funds. For districts already struggling financially, proving that this new federal money isn't just replacing local dollars they planned to spend anyway will require meticulous accounting and careful planning. Finally, the competitive nature of the grant means that schools in consortia with strong grant-writing capabilities may win out over equally deserving, but less-resourced, local partnerships. This bill sets a high standard for quality, but the real test will be whether schools can meet that standard without disrupting the entire school schedule.