Supporting educators isn’t just part of what we do; it’s who we are. At the heart of our company is a deep appreciation and respect for the impact educators have on our children and our communities. Our business is focused on helping educators protect what they have today and prepare for a successful tomorrow – but we are driven to do more. We listen to and understand the issues they are facing, and provide resources, tools and solutions to help achieve of lifetime of financial success.
Student Loan Solutions
The U.S. Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program was designed to encourage careers in public service by allowing federal loans of public service workers to be forgiven after 10 years of qualifying payments. However, navigating the process can be confusing at best.
Horace Mann has offered every public school educator in the country a complimentary Student Loan Solutions online account, which includes webinar education, online resources and expert loan coaches to help educators get the loan forgiveness they deserve. In 2021, the program identified more than $100 million in PSLF opportunities for educators, bringing the program’s lifetime total to more than $450 million.
Financial Education
Horace Mann agents provide complimentary financial wellness workshops for educators at schools and online, including financial literacy, retirement readiness and similar topics. Each state has a different retirement system for educators, and some have more than one. We can speak to the requirements, benefits and idiosyncrasies of the respective systems and help educators understand their potential retirement income.
In 2021, we introduced a workshop specifically tailored to help women prepare for retirement. Women face unique challenges that can impact their ability to realize their longer-term financial goals, including a higher life expectancy and therefore, greater retirement needs and a longer exposure to risks that include both inflation and rising healthcare costs.
Classroom Crowdfunding
Teachers regularly spend hundreds of dollars of their own money to buy classroom supplies for their students. As a national sponsor of the classroom crowdfunding platform DonorsChoose, Horace Mann provides funding for projects teachers have identified as critical to helping their students learn — and helps them keep more of their own money. Since 2011, Horace Mann and its representatives have donated more than $5 million to DonorsChoose projects — funding more than 49,000 projects that have helped more than 2 million students.
Recognizing outstanding educators
We believe it is important to recognize outstanding educators at both a national and local level. We partner with educational organizations and school districts across the country to award outstanding teachers, school employees and administrators.
Horace Mann partners with the NEA Foundation to recognize, reward and promote excellence in teaching through the annual Horace Mann Awards for Teaching Excellence. We also sponsor the Women in School Leadership Awards with AASA, The School Superintendents Association, as well as the District 186 Educator of the Year program in our corporate headquarters of Springfield, Ill. Local agents often partner with their school districts to offer recognition and sponsorships specific to that district’s needs.
Keeping educators safe
The HMDrive mobile app helps keep our driving teachers safe by providing personalized insights to each driver. Each trip is scored using a star rating, and trips over the previous two weeks are compiled into an overall score. Drivers improve their scores by avoiding risky behavior, such as speeding, hard braking and acceleration, aggressive cornering and cellphone use while driving. Drivers can compete with others and track their personal trends, streaks and achievements.