Alexandra Hootnick notes that in some districts, Teach For America corps members are competing with traditional teachers for jobs:
When Teach For America started up, [founder Wendy] Kopp prioritized sending its energetic but inexperienced corps to public schools lacking licensed educators – the schools often too poor or too dangerous to attract teachers. But since the recession, with education funding across the country drying up, teacher layoffs have become more of an issue than teacher shortages. Between 2008 and 2013, 324,000 teaching positions in local school districts were eliminated, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. With TFA’s expansion outpacing needs, it has been forced to find new places for its recruits. In the process, the organization has come under increasing fire, not just from outside critics but from its own alumni ranks, which include former recruits who believe the organization’s aggressive growth strategy has compromised its mission.
One of TFA’s controversial moves has been to seek placements for recruits in wealthier school districts like Seattle’s, where teaching jobs – not teachers – are scarce. … Meanwhile, the cost of recruiting, training and supporting corps members – which is partly subsidized by taxpayers – has more than doubled over the past decade, from $22,000 to at least $47,000. (TFA disputes this, claiming that it has revised its method of accounting for these costs.) And informal data that the TFA used to track its teachers’ performance indicates that their students aren’t making as much progress as they were a few years ago.
Update from a reader:
The Onion nailed this one, of course: “My Year Volunteering As A Teacher Helped Educate A New Generation Of Underprivileged Kids vs. Can We Please, Just Once, Have A Real Teacher”
The Dish 