Teach for America Is Not What You May Think

 

Teach for America (TFA) is not what you may think. From the start they have taken advantage of the neoliberal belief that one can "do good" and profit. This belief is held by conservatives and moderate, Democrat politicians and a number of members of the Democrat party. Neoliberals are moderates/centrists, which can be a good thing. But in the case of profiting off of public school tax dollars, neoliberals differ greatly from progressive Democrats.

Since Ronald Regan, every president has been in favor of public school privatization. This includes TFA, and other neoliberal business ventures. President Obama made it even worse for our public schools than President Bush. So far it appears that President Biden is sticking to politics as usual, as he supports high stakes standardized tests during a raging pandemic, even when he said he wouldn't.

Teach for America has an outstanding marketing department and lots of money to fund it. They have been criticized for many things, including the loss of certified teachers of color from the urban districts whom they charge finder fees to for each fresh, young, elite college grad they place in their schools for two short years. The doe-eyed college grads get five weeks of training and are sent into extremely difficult conditions which require racial sensitivity and all kinds training. TFA gets huge donations from philanthropies which have privatization goals. 

There are numerous books on this topic, but the one I recommend below is the best I have read because by learning the history of America's capitalistic and unequal efforts on the backs of Black children, you can see the connections to today.  Using poor, Black and Brown communities to profit by cheating children out of a good education is nothing new. Since Brown v. Board of Ed., whites have used "helping " communities of color for personal profit. In essence, we now have defacto segregation in many of our cities due to the proliferation of charter schools, which have less accountability & different rules than authentic public schools, thanks to neoliberal beliefs regarding public education.

As someone with a BBA in marketing and a MS in Education, it has always been clear to me that business and public education don't mix.

I recommend the book below if you want to read about TFA by the author who coined the term, segronomics.  

" (Dr. Rooks) explains how 19th century Reconstruction-era policies led to the creation of separate, segregated and unequal systems of schooling — in which black children from poor families got inferior educations. And, coining the term “segrenomics,” she links that era to today, when companies and individuals are profiting handsomely from segregated and inequitable education."

                                                                        

Check out the book here.

"A comprehensive, compelling account of what's truly at stake in the relentless push to deregulate and privatize, Cutting School is a cri de coeur for all of us to resist educational apartheid in America."

"Rooks's incisive critique breaks down the fraught landscape of "segrenomics," showing how experimental solutions to the so-called achievement gaps―including charters, vouchers, and cyber schools―rely on, profit from, and ultimately exacerbate disturbingly high levels of racial and economic segregation under the guise of providing equal opportunity." And she covers TFA.

"Public schools are among America's greatest achievements in modern history, yet from the earliest days of tax-supported education―today a sector with an estimated budget of over half a billion dollars―there have been intractable tensions tied to race and poverty. Now, in an era characterized by levels of school segregation the country has not seen since the mid-twentieth century, cultural critic and American studies professor Noliwe Rooks provides a trenchant analysis of our separate and unequal schools and argues that profiting from our nation's failure to provide a high-quality education to all children has become a very big business."

Below please find articles, opinion pieces, and interviews from many sources that can explain why Teach for America is no friend of public education.

Articles, opinion pieces, and interviews 

Big trouble at Teach For America? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/03/22/teach-for-americas-diversity-paradox/

Is Teach For America’s training problematic? https://cloakinginequity.com/2019/05/01/is-teach-for-americas-training-problematic-even-racist/

Teach For America’s paradoxical diversity initiative: Race, policy, and Black teacher displacement in urban schools https://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/2100

An Open Letter to New Teach For America Recruits https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/an-open-letter-to-new-teach-for-america-recruits/

I Quit Teach for America  https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/i-quit-teach-for-america/279724/ 

How Teach for America Evolved Into an Arm of the Charter School Movement https://www.propublica.org/article/how-teach-for-america-evolved-into-an-arm-of-the-charter-school-movement

Is America’s Most Controversial Education Group Changing Its Ways? https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/02/teach-america-most-divisive-education-reform-group/ 

What Went Wrong With Teach For America https://progressive.org/public-school-shakedown/went-wrong-teach-america/

30 Years of Teach For America Shows How Reform Movements Can Become Co-Opted https://truthout.org/articles/30-years-of-teach-for-america-shows-how-reform-movements-can-become-co-opted/

Don't Teach For America, teach for real https://www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2016/10/12/dont-teach-america-teach-real/

Taking on TFA https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/10/tfa-wendy-kopp-corporate-education-reform-new-orleans/ 

The True Cost of Teach For America's Impact on Urban Schools https://prospect.org/civil-rights/true-cost-teach-america-s-impact-urban-schools/

Bernie Sanders Stood Up to Teach for America When Congress Wouldn’t https://theintercept.com/2019/10/16/bernie-sanders-teach-for-america/ 

Students Should be Wary of Teach for America https://dailytrojan.com/2019/10/06/students-should-be-wary-of-teach-for-america/

Interview with Noliwe Rooks on segregation https://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/smith-rooks

Professor Noliwe Rooks Discusses Her New Book ‘Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education’ – EXTENDED INTERVIEW https://www.risingupwithsonali.com/2019/03/13/professor-noliwe-rooks-discusses-her-new-book-cutting-school-privatization-segregation-and-the-end-of-public-education-extended-interview/

Interviews of former Assistant Secretary of Education, Diane Ravitch https://dianeravitch.com/interviews/

 This episode of Last Week Tonight did a really good job of explaining why the charter school business isn't all it's cracked up to be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_htSPGAY7I

 

 MORE BOOKS:

Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools https://tinyurl.com/jtyykaw5

Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools https://tinyurl.com/4aj8yctp 

A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School https://tinyurl.com/we639j63

Addicted to Reform: A 12-Step Program to Rescue Public Education https://tinyurl.com/96vdckyb

 School House Burning: https://tinyurl.com/485jz3a

The Swindle of Innovative Educational Finance: https://tinyurl.com/w43jbkby

The issues related to corporate education reform are complex, financial, and political. You must read and educate yourself to know when you are being misled. I am happy to answer any questions you may have. If I don't know the answer, I will try to find it. daschwartz24@comcast.net