Look who supports even more taxpayer dollars going into Teach for America

[tonysam]

It'll shock you:

The following Members of Congress have expressed their written support for providing $50 million in federal funding to Teach For America in 2011.

House of Representatives
Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV)
Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL)
Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC)
Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao (R-LA)
Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA)
Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO)
Rep. André Carson (D-IN)
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO)
Rep. Stephen Cohen (D-TN)
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)
Rep. Joseph Courtney (D-CT)
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD)
Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL)
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO)
Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD)
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)
Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY)
Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC)
Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA)
Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA)
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-TX)
Rep. Gene Green (D-TX)
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ)
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL)
Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT)
Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX)
Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ)
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)
Rep. Henry Johnson (D-GA)
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ)
Rep. Larry Kissell (D-NC)
Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI)
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA)
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA)
Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA)
Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA)
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY)
Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA)
Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI)
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)
Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-TX)
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ)
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ)
Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ)
Rep. David Price (D-NC)
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)
Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA)
Rep. Mike Ross (D-MS)
Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL)
Rep. Gregorio Sablan (D-MP)
Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD)
Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-IL)
Rep. David Scott (D-GA)
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA)
Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA)
Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ)
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY)
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS)
Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY)
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)


Senators
Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL)
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD)
Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA)
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR)

TFA

Not all of these are DLC types. I can expect far more Republicans than the one supporting the earmarks or a lesser amount.

Meanwhile, teachers all over the country are being given pink slips.

Susan Ohanian:

This support for Teacher for America was brought to my attention by a news article listing Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen F11 Appropriations Requests (Earmarks, which include:


Entity: Teach for America
Address: Teach for America, New York, NY 10018
Amount: $50,000,000
Project Title: Teach for America
Purpose: Teach for America, a national nonprofit with a demonstrated record of success, will use these funds to recruit, select, train, and provide professional development to top recent college graduates of all academic majors who commit two years to teach in our nation’s highest poverty co


Here are Cohen's education priorities, which fall in line with those of the Democratic Party and earn him an A rating from NEA.

For 2010, Cohen's Earmark requests include 42 projects total $125.7 million. His requests for Teach for America are by far the most generous. Stan Katz at Chronicle of Higher Education wonders how much lobbying for these earmarks costs Teach for America.

In February, the Washington Post's Nick Anderson reported on the Teach for America Earmark issue, Duncan questioned on move to cut funding for Teach for America. Duncan says Teach for America could get more from the competitive program he wants, but Teach for America seems to feel a bird in hand is the safer route. Hence Earmarks.

Of interest is how eager Democrats are to make sure Teach for America continues to get truckloads of money.

[stray cat]

1. How dare they try to encourage young people to go into teaching

[frazzled]

2. Are you implying they shouldn't support it?

I think Teach for America is a good program, and I don't believe teachers need to feel threatened by it. It brings the best and brightest (mostly new college grads) into the lowest-income urban and rural districts for two years with two goals: short-term impact and a lifelong interest in educational policy, whether these kids become teachers or not (most don't).

A college friend of my son's did this. She was a brilliant girl, with a University of Chicago degree in biological sciences. She could have done anything. She wanted to "give back" for a few years instead, and was assigned to an inner-city school in Houston, Texas (she was a native New Yorker). I admired that decision at the time. Maybe, today, with unemployment so high, it's becoming more of a stop-gap job prospect for young graduates. But I think it's helpful to the education profession as a whole to get these bright young kids into the schools to really see the problems--not only with students and funding but to gain an understanding of the real problems teachers face each day. Whatever fields they go on to, they will be able to contribute in informed, positive ways to the discussion of education in this country.

Now hit me with the company line on how awful this is.

[radical noodle]

6. It's about the priorities for me

There are schools all over the country being hit with funding cuts. Some of our local schools are laying off dozens of teachers, closing school libraries, and eliminating good educational programs. This isn't due to local mismanagement, but because of funding cuts at the state level. In a situation like this, it's bizarre to spend this money on TFA while teachers who have been doing a good job in the system are being let go for monetary reasons. There are kids here who are very upset about losing the teachers they've known and loved.

This is essentially dragging teachers out of their schools and replacing them with untrained recruits. I can't see much positive about this scenario. TFA may have some good folks helping out, but the money is needed right now for teachers who are already there.

[FBaggins]

7. That assumes that their goal is to staff schools

I don't think that's what they're shooting for.

If you want to be cynical (a position well represented by tonysam), they WANT to replace the experinced (read "expensive") teachers with cheaper labor.

If you want to give them the benefit of the doubt, they're trying to staff the future legislatures with comer teachers.

[mzteris]

8. I never thought about it that way - you're right!

From their website: "O. . . n succeeding with their students, corps members show that students in low-income communities can achieve at high levels, offering further evidence that educational inequity is a solvable problem.

Yet we know that enlisting additional high-quality teachers is not the ultimate solution. We believe that the best hope for ending educational inequity is to build a massive force of leaders in all fields who have the perspective and conviction that come from teaching successfully in low-income communities.

During their two-year commitments, Teach For America corps members see firsthand that educational inequity is solvable and gain a grounded understanding of how to solve it.

Beyond these two years, Teach For America alumni bring strong leadership to all levels of the school system and every professional sector, addressing the extra challenges facing children growing up in low-income communities, building the capacity of schools and districts, and changing the prevailing ideology through their examples and advocacy. "


*******

What an effective way to get the message across to future leaders - and future parents in their communities.

[radical noodle]

13. That's not exactly my point

I didn't say (nor did I mean to imply) there was a conspiracy surrounding this particular program, I just think that the money would be better spent on existing successful programs that are currently being cut. On one hand, we're throwing out teachers who are perfectly good while funding a program to provide inexperienced, untrained teachers. In the case of shortages of willing teachers, I could see adding the TFA people to classrooms.

If we are training perfectly good teachers and many are without jobs, why give those jobs to TFA? I just have a problem with that. The real assumption here is that TFA is needed. I've been watching these local schools agonize over cutting out libraries and books and music teachers, and wonder why in the world this money could not be spent to help these proven programs survive.

On the other hand, tonysam has a reason to believe they want to replace experienced teacher with cheap labor. Schools have been begging/bribing teachers for several years to retire before they're ready in order to save money. What are teachers to think? That the school districts just want them to have a nice, long retirement?

[tonysam]

9. Exactly.

TFA isn't really about the "best" people working in our schools; instead, it's about undermining school morale by the schools hiring the cheapest workers.

"Two years and out" will be the rule in American public education if this trend isn't reversed.

[mzteris]

10. 1/3 of all "new teachers" who graduates to be one -

works for THREE years.

HALF of all "new teachers" who graduates to be one - quits by year FIVE.

So you get top-ranked students in their professions committed for two years instead of an "average student" for three years - MAYBE five . . . .

hmmmmmmmm......

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. Our kids deserve better than peace corps volunteers

I work with several TFA teachers. They are woefully undertrained, unprepared and underpaid for working with tough urban kids.

One of them is quite gifted and we are working to persuade her to stay in teaching instead of going to law school.

The others are just not cutting it. It's quite sad. Our kids deserve the BEST teachers, and TFA isn't producing the best.

[frazzled]

14. the teacher in a post below disagrees with you

[madrchsod]

3. actually we already have program that does something like this

http://www.americorps.gov/

it would seem teach america would be beneficial to america

[tonysam]

4. Education, however, is too important to leave it up to rank amateurs

Those students in the at-risk schools need the most experienced, most capable teachers, not a bunch of newbies.

[donco6]

5. I have to say, out of all the alternative licensure programs we've had -

the teachers we've gotten through TFA are really good.

I would love to know what their screening model is, because we haven't had one blowout yet.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. And ours largely suck

They get virtually no training and very little support. It's sad.

I am right next door to one for half a day. Don't ask me how many times a day I am in her room - actually more likely in the hall - dealing with kids who have no respect whatsoever for this teacher.

[LuckyLib]

15. I'm with the following educator, who sees TFA as elitist and presumptuous.

“There is an elitist overtone to the structure of TFA –– that the best and the brightest can make a difference in the lives of children who are less fortunate, even when they are not professionally prepared
to do so.”

apps.carleton.edu/campus/.../Teach_for_American_Viewpoints.06.pdf