I decided to write this diary when I heard yet another advertisement for Teach for America (TFA) on NPR. The announcement on the Medtronic web site reads:
Medtronic Foundation Announces $1.4 Million Grant to Teach For America
Grant to Expand Nationwide Recruitment and Training of Thousands of Math and Science Teachers
STOP CALLING THEM TEACHERS!
This is false on so many levels. Teach for America does not train teachers. It provides a five week training session to recent college grads who are not teachers before placing them in a classroom. If, as TFA purports, it trained 3700people in 2008 to place in classrooms and only 13% or 481 were math and science majors, how does that translate into thousands over the next three years? Why donate so much money to a group that has no education expertise whatsoever?
Before I begin I can guess that many of you have warm, fuzzy feelings for Teach for America. Most everyone does, even unfortunately for educators, our government representatives. My purpose here is to raise some questions about this organization and perhaps find some answers to concerns I find very troubling.
Teach for America was founded by Wendy Kopp about 20 years ago when she decided America needed a teacher corps, like the Peace Corps, a comparison she continues to make even today. She further decided that she should be the one to chose who was in that teacher corps and her primary qualification would be: NO TEACHERS ALLOWED.
If you are a professional in any field you may be interested in this. If you are a doctor, lawyer, nurse, accountant, dentist, librarian, pharmacist, psychologist, etc., you went to college, earned a degree, and became certified or licensed to get a job in your profession. If you are a nurse, for example, you wouldn’t expect an employer to hire an accountant to do your job. Even if there was a nursing shortage, an accountant doesn’t have the knowledge and skills to do a nurse’s job. Hiring an accountant to do a your job would be silly and most likely, illegal. Why, then, has it become acceptable to hire anyone with a four-year degree in anything to be a teacher while real teachers -- excellent, experienced teachers -- are clamoring for jobs? One reason is the preferential treatment given to Teach for America candidates.
Since its inception, Kopp has compared TFA to the Peace Corps. It is nothing like the Peace Corps. Peace Corps members are volunteers. Even so, Kopp refers to her recruits as corps members. Hiring corps members costs school districts much more than hiring regular teachers. In addition to paying corps members a regular salary, schools are required to pay TFA a hefty recruiting fee. Corps members also receive about $10,000 dollars in debt relief for two years that regular teachers are not entitled to. This is tremendously unfair to real teachers and a source of contention between real teachers and the fake ones hired from TFA. In addition, many schools must hire full-time, licensed literacy coaches to teach fake teachers how to teach. (More about that in an upcoming diary.)
I have taught in Florida and Indiana schools so I know a bit about the teaching climate there. In Miami where 400 teachers were laid off this past spring, Teach for America claims to be placing corps members. According to the Sun-Sentinel:
The layoff of nearly 400 Broward teachers is hitting some schools -- particularly elementary schools -- much harder than others.
Overall, elementary schools had the most cuts, with at least 269 teachers losing their jobs, according to district statistics. There were at least 63 high school and 48 middle school teachers laid off, with the rest of the job cuts coming from centers and district offices, according to school district figures.
In my one time hometown of Indianapolis, where there has never been a teacher shortage and often as many as 600 applicants for each job posted, TFA is placing 46 corps members. According to the Indianapolis Star:
Indianapolis Public School Board has eliminated 300 teaching jobs and 40 non-teaching jobs in a move designed to save about $25 million. The board also shuffled about 30 other teachers and administrators into lower-paying positions.
According to this NPR report, teachers in Los Angeles face severe budget cuts and teacher lay-offs, so how is TFA able to place 354 corps members there?
The school board is facing a nearly $600 million deficit. To close the gap, the school superintendent says the district must lay off 7,000 thousand teachers and staff, increase class sizes and even have schools share principals.
Why is it that Teach for America has such extraordinary access even when school districts are under excruciating budget restraints? Why should TFA recruits pre-empt real teachers? It just doesn't make sense. Wendy Kopp must be stopped. Education majors have worked too hard to give up their jobs to the elitists corps members of Teach for America. If you are curious about whether Teach for America fake teachers are replacing real teachers in your area, you can find out here. If your local newspaper has printed a story about teacher lay-offs, I'd appreciate the link if you would list it in "comments".
Wendy Kopp and Teach for America are exceptionally well connected. The donor list of TFA reads like a Who's Who of the GOP. Ten million dollars from each of: The Broad Foundation, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Doris and Donald Fisher Fund, Rainwater Charitable Funds. Five million dollars from each of: Sue and Steve Mandel, Marsha and James McCormick, Toni Rembe and Arthur Rock, and the Robertson Foundation. Our government through Americorps awarded Teach for America 25,415,775 of our tax dollars and the Department of Education granted still more. Not one cent of that money reaches children in the classroom in the form of programs, equipment, or learning materials. From the TFA web site:
This legislation comes as Teach For America enters the final two years of an ambitious 2010 growth plan. The authorization language provides for up to $20 million in federal funding for Teach For America through the Department of Education for fiscal year 2009, $25 million for fiscal year 2010, and such sums as necessary for outgoing fiscal years. Teach For America projects that by 2010 it will place 7,500 teachers in 33 regions across the country, reaching more than 600,000 underserved students in pre-K through 12th grade. At the same time, some 20,000 alumni will be working from within education and all other fields to level the playing field for children and families in low-income communities.
One reason Kopp enjoys so much influence can be attributed to articles like this one in the New York Times which cites Kopp and her husband, Richard Barth, as two entrepreneurs leading the way to change in education.
DILLON (6/19/08): Ms. Kopp has built her group into a powerhouse, with an annual budget of $120 million, a national staff of 835, and partnerships with Goldman Sachs, Google and other blue-chip names. This spring, she presided over its most successful campus recruiting campaign, and made Time magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people.
From my research, the only thing this power couple is leading the way to is a big, fat bank account in their names. According to Kopp, monies are spent on recruiting, training, and supporting corps members for their two year stint in the classroom. But, the Daily Howler tells it like this:
Kopp herself received a salary of $250,736 in 2005, the last year for which such data are available—though this fact is almost never mentioned in profiles or interviews (including Dillon’s.) Six other TFA executives received salaries ranging from $125,000 to $202,000 in 2006.
Whatever! For that $120 million annual outlay, Kopp and her staff of more than 800 recruited roughly 3700 teachers this past year—teachers whose salaries are paid by the school systems which employ them. In short, Teach for America spends roughly $32,000 per teacher just to send its young hires to their schools. That strikes us as an astounding amount, though we’re willing to see our reaction challenged. And of course, you might not mind burning through that kind of money—if the program in question really worked.
(The program doesn't work, but more about that in an upcoming diary.) I have scoured the Internet for a report of Kopp's current salary but couldn't find one, so if anyone does find it, I'd appreciate the source. If Kopp's salary was over $250,000 in 2005, I'm guessing it has at least doubled by now making her more highly paid than anyone in the government. If I'm wrong about that, Kopp can call me on it. And as for her staff of 800 -- that's about one employee for each of eight corps members now in service -- each makes beaucoups bucks, too, just like Peace Corps volunteers. Yep.
As a Peace Corps Volunteer, you are not paid a salary. Instead you will receive a stipend to cover your basic necessities; food, housing expenses, and local transportation. While the amount of the stipend varies from country to country, you will receive an amount that allows you to live at the same level as the people you serve in your community. Your personal expenses, souvenirs and vacation travel, will be your responsibility. The Peace Corps pays for your transportation to and from your country of service and provides you with complete medical and dental care. At the conclusion of your service as a Volunteer, you will receive a "readjustment allowance" of $225 for each month of service. If you complete your full term of service, you will receive $6,075.
Please, if we could, stop comparing TFA candidates to Peace Corps volunteers. It's demeaning to the good folks who travel overseas to live and work in oftentimes impoverished conditions. I'm going to call them TFAers.
In July of 2008, Sharly Atkinsson reported on the state of finances at Teach for America. An analysis by The Daily Howler reads like this:
ABOUT THAT FEDERAL AUDIT: As noted, TFA’s current annual budget is $120 million (its operating budget is $75 million); ten percent comes from the federal government. On Friday, the CBS Evening News reported a recent federal audit. Here’s part of what Sharyl Attkisson said:
ATTKISSON (7/11/08): The Department of Education Inspector General examined a small slice of the group's federal funding. What they found was shocking.
In all, Teach for America failed to account for half the money audited. Time and time again, the audit said there were no basic records or receipts: None for a $123,878 training expense; none for a $342,428 bill.
Teach for America vice president Kevin Huffman chalks it up to poor record keeping.
"We're confident, we're confident that we spent the money on the training of new teachers," Huffman said. [...]
They should have kept records on a tab for more than a quarter million dollars for food and lodging ($277,262) and $26,812 for teacher certification—but didn't. Auditors say there was no documentation that any teachers actually attended and completed the class, or that there even was a class.
For ourselves, we’re prepared to assume that there actually was such a class. Though we wouldn’t bet 12 million on it.
I'm not ready to give credence to the "poor record keeping" story, and I believe the class was phony because I have worked in universities and there are many ways to track events to account for poor records. The money for teacher certification should have been easily tracked because state boards of certification keep meticulous record of all transactions even if TFA didn't. Kopp should not be given a free pass especially since she has had accounting problems since the inception of the organization as she admits in her book, One Day, All Children. That federal audit was over one year ago. Why hasn't Kopp been held accountable for all those missing dollars? Why didn't those discrepancies launch a full scale investigation into the accounting practices of TFA? Why, at the discovery of such rampant irresponsibility, did Americorps and the Department of Education grant millions more of our tax dollars to such a shady enterprise? The audit examined only a small slice of the operation. If we extrapolate from that, there could be much more money unaccounted for, the amount could be millions of dollars, and that smells like fraud to me. I'm just saying, the feds should check it out.
This diary is not meant to be a condemnation of the TFAers who have been duped by Wendy Kopp just as so many of the rest of us have. However, they must realize that there are many excellent teachers who did choose to be teachers who cannot find employment because of their last minute change of mind to be a teacher for a couple of years before going on to a real career. There are some of us who consider teaching to be an actual career.
If Teach for America is not a shill for the GOP, it has all the appearances of one. If Wendy Kopp is not the Sarah Palin of education, she may be the George Bush because even though she lacks the knowledge and experience to be an educator, she has successfully become the face of education. If you are a parent with children in public schools, I highly recommend you read Relentless Pursuit by Donna Foote. The book chronicles the story of four Teach for America TFAers through their first year of teaching. My heart aches for the four TFAers and their students. I found myself shouting at characters, offering advice, as if they could hear me through the printed page. After reading the book, or parts of it, I hope you will join me in demanding that Teach for America be held accountable and that real educators have a say in the education of our children.
I had such high hopes for the Obama administration in regard to education. Both Barack and Michelle had marvelous teachers and attended excellent schools. I was invited to Punahou in Hawaii, Obama's K-12 alma mater, to create a model summer school program there in 1996. Punahou is the private school that all public schools should strive to be. Both Barack and Michelle Obama know what excellent school look like, so why would they shortchange American's kids by giving millions of our tax dollars to TFA? Imagine my disappointment when Obama chose Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education to carry on the disastrous policies of the Bush administration. From Global Idealogies in Education (The entire article is worth a look):
“Education Week” recently published an article declaring Obama’s education agenda as Bush’s third term, a suggestion liberals ignore while bowing at the altar of Democratic Centrism under President Obama. TFA presents a prime example of New Democratic thinking in the sphere of education: an anti-union stance, acceptance of high-stakes testing, and the application of for-profit methods to running a vital public institution.
The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, signed by President Obamaon 4/20/09, will eventually increase the size of AmeriCorps from 75,000 members to 250,000 members. This legislation is significant because TFA members receive nearly $10,000 from AmeriCorps to repay student loans or put towards future education, and Duncan has specifically mentioned TFA as an example of the kind of program the Department of Education will look to expand. No Child Left Behind, a bipartisan law written partly by Senator Kennedy and supported by centrist Democrats, is a terrible misnomer for the most important education law in the past decade. Teach For America’s title suggests an organization selflessly contributing to public education when, upon further investigation, the non-profit exists primarily to benefit its own members while exacerbating social and education inequity.
Maybe with so much on his plate, Obama doesn't realize the damage TFA does to the teaching profession and our public schools. Since Senator Kennedy is so ill, he can hardly be held accountable for legislation even if it does bear his name. But someone has to be watching out for the kids. We owe our children the best possible education, and this doesn't even come close.
I am an unemployed teacher displaced by a TFA-like person with no education skills or experience. Even though I was involved in creating one of the most innovative schools in the country, my expertise is not valued because I cost more than a TFAer. So, if we are going to let Wendy Kopp and her ultra-chic troop of teacher-wannabes take the stage and be the hot new thing in education, then let's level the playing field. I suggest that we shut down the Schools of Education at all our colleges and universities so that people who would have enrolled in them can have a chance of getting a job once they graduate. But truly, if I had only a tiny sliver of the funding donated to Teach for America, I could set up projects that would make a real difference in education and in the lives of children. So, I'm curious, how does one become the beneficiary of so much wealth while having absolutely no expertise in the field? Wendy, I'm asking you.
My message to Wendy Kopp is this: I'm not ready to hand over my profession to the elitist who seek to destroy it. Even though I'm penniless (after three years of being unemployed) and without powerful, influential friends, I am an excellent educator, and I love my profession. I'm not giving it up to the likes of you, Wendy Kopp, without a fight. I'm so sick of bullies like you with all your money and influence. Enough! So, as your good friend George Bush(bottom of page) would say, Wendy, "Bring it on." I'm ready to talk education. Bring a dictionary.