By Greg Hazley
Shepardson, Stern & Kaminsky has picked up a seven-figure pact to guide a campaign for the U.S. Dept. of Education to recruit teachers.
The Education Dept. estimates that it needs as many as 1.7 million new teachers by 2017 and sought pitches for its recruitment effort, known as TEACH and slated to launch in September. The solicitation called for a mix of traditional and new media strategies with the goals to increase the number, quality and diversity of people seeking to become teachers and to "raise the profile of the teaching profession in the eyes of the general public, with those already in the profession, and especially among those who may be considering teaching as a career."
New York-SS&K, which worked with the Obama presidential campaign, has deep public affairs experience and recently used a jobs pitch to help push through clean energy legislation in the House of Representatives. It has worked with the Rockefeller Philanthropy organization Strong American Schools in the past in the education sector.
With the Dept. of Education, SS&K won a $1.5M one-year contract with two possible option years valued at $1.2M each. Its scope includes market research, developing a campaign plan, materials, PSAs and other efforts.
Earlier this month, President Barack Obama signed a law to provide $10 billion for an estimated 160,000 education jobs, in addition to other provisions like allocating money for Medicare for the states.
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