Edushyster obtained internal planning documents from Teach for America in Chicago.
The document displayed on her website shows plans for 52 new privately-managed charters that will open over the next five years.
These charters will be staffed largely by TFA’s young recruits, with five weeks of training.
Just weeks ago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed 50 public schools, claiming they were “underutilized.” But the school closures presented an opportunity to expand the charter sector.
EduShyster notes that the plan is symbolic of TFA’s new role:
“TFA has largely abandoned its earlier mission of staffing hard-to-fill positions in public schools, serving instead as a placement agency for urban charters. In Chicago, however, TFA’s role appears to go far beyond providing labor for the fast-growing charter sector. An internal TFA document indicates that the organization has a plan to dramatically expand the number of charter schools in the city.”
TFA has become the handmaiden of the privatization movement. Without TFA’s ready supply of eager and inexperienced young college graduates, willing to work long hours without a union and with meager wages, it would be impossible to expand these private-sector schools at such a rapid clip.
Since the projected hiring of many more TFA corps members coincides with the layoff of large numbers of Chicago public school teachers, it is safe to say that TFA is helping not only to privatize the Chicago public schools but to bust the union.
This may fit right in with the far-right ideals of the Walton Family Foundation, which gifted TFA with $50 million, but it somehow does not sound all that idealistic.
Imagine the new TFA recruiting poster: Join TFA and Privatize America’s Public Schools! Bust the Teachers’ Unions!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Can we call them scabs now?
Thank you.
Yes! Seriously. PLEASE DO!
Many TFA recruits are bright, passionate and truly believe in what they’re doing. They don’t want to be played for patsies. They don’t want to be strike breakers, sellouts, Pintkertons or SCABS.
And they certainly don’t want their peers on campus to think of them that way, going off after graduation, to take the job of a call
The writing is on the wall: The TFA virus extends to “data leadership.” Consider the Gates-funded organization, Education Pioneers (halfway though this post):
“Education Pioneers?” Good lord, this sounds like something in China or Russia!
Think it is time to declare war on TFA…
And the national unions either need to take this on or their leadership should be unceremoniously dumped.
It’s time for civil rights organizations to sue this outfit out of existence.
Suing is one option, possibly, but I do believe that a concerted political action is warranted.
This must be more of the parental involvement we hear so much about from reformers.
They kept Chicago parents in the dark for two years on the plans for their schools.
Didn’t the reformer who came to Chicago (by way of Cleveland and New York) promise public school parents there were no plans to privatize more of their public schools? Was she aware of the plans? When?
And, Chiara, also by way of Detroit.
OF COURSE she was “aware!” In fact, she was probably one of the planners!!!
The intention is to target TFA at the historically overcrowded and much better performing neighborhood schools on the North & NW sides of the city. It will be blackmail and sales pitches by Rahm and TFA to get kids out of hall ways and lunchrooms in their regular schools and into charter schools that will be located where? Good idea by Rahm, 1st piss off those he ignores and then piss off the few remaining voters who might have sympathy for his and CPS lies. It’s gonna take a whopper of a sales pitch to co-opt that part of town.
How many of the charters will be operated by the Gulen movement? Any?
Reblogged this on Crazy Crawfish's Blog and commented:
TFA has officially reduced themselves to a scab temp agency helping privatizers wring as much profit out of poor children as possible in the name of progressive causes. I feel pretty confident that Martin Luther King would be marching with the teachers unions and families and against the TFA privatizes and their ilk who seek to exploit children of color (whether they want it or not) – to line their pockets.
This is outrageous. The really sad part is that the vermin who are profiting from all of this will just shrug, pull up stakes, and move on to screw someone else once the gig is up. They are NEVER held “accountable”!
Isn’t there a racketeering law out there like RICO?
I can’t say that I am the least bit surprised by this.. saddened yes, surprised… no! At this point, the entire TFA program should be disbanded and banned from the education arena. Their mission as one reader mentioned was to fill unfilled teaching positions. Any alternative certification allowed was based on this fact. If there is no longer an incredible need for teachers, then “bye bye TFA”. The new TFA “mission statement” is to take over the public school system in order to privatize. Alternative certification was not created for this reason! They should be receiving a giant “cease and desist” letter!
Look who Josh Anderson’s (Chicago TFA) dad works for…..what a coincidence….all in the family to destroy public schools:
Mr. Anderson, 30, is the executive director of Teach for America-Chicago. He graduated from Princeton.
He is the son of Joan Bradbury and Jo Anderson Jr. of Chicago. The bridegroom’s mother retired as a third-grade teacher at Francis W. Parker School, a private school in Chicago. His father works in Washington as a senior adviser to Arne Duncan, the secretary of education.
“His father works in Washington as a senior adviser to Arne Duncan, the secretary of education.”
Ugh. It’s just appalling. All those people in Chicago who tried to keep their schools. They never had a snowballs chance, did they?
Is it any wonder Duncan has abandoned public schools? After 8 years of Bush and 5 of Obama Is there a single individual left at that agency who actually supports or works on behalf of public schools?
And “MRS. (caps mine) Anderson, 29, is the director of Fund for Authorizing Excellence, a grant-making fund of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.”
Is this not a conflict of interest somewhere?
It isn’t just another crazy conspiracy theory when there is an actual conspiracy of greed and power to take over American public education for personal profit. Monetizing children is immoral.
I love “new CMO one” and “new CMO two” and then “national CMO one” and “national CMO two”
I can tell these schools are uniquely and carefully planned for these communities 🙂
Hopefully they can come up with a catchier name prior to dropping them into a neighborhood. “National CMO Two” sounds sorta grim and industrial.
In Minneapolis a clandestine deal has been struck between the University of MN’s dean Jean Quam from the College of Education & Human Development and TFA against the input of many at the U, community members, alumni, and graduate students. http://notfaattheu.wordpress.com/ Meanwhile dean Quam (a social worker by trade) sits on the board of directors for a Minneapolis charter school (http://www.seed-harvest.org/download.axd?file=02fbc94c-1778-44c6-a318-61243ca4b12a&dnldType=Resource) that is staffed nearly exclusively with TFA members and who has a CEO of questionable background: http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/199606941.html for some reason this whole scam is not seen as corruption or a conflict of interest due to the minnsanity of Minnesota’s corporate edreform movement. We are following in the dirty footsteps of the Chicago, who needs corrupt mayoral control when Minneapolis Public Schools is run by TFA and McKinsey already, and TFA is secretly welcomed to the U of MN? Stay strong Chicago! Thanks for your work Diane!
I predicted a couple months ago Chicago would be the next charter hotbed. The EduFrauds are in full force.
Me, too, Zak! “Waiting for TFA” and, as the school buildings closed, the opening of more charters–staffed with TFA!
“TFA’s supply of corps members to staff schools like UNO and Noble at salaries far below what teachers in the Chicago Public Schools earn has been key to enabling the schools’ expansion.”
Makes sense from the scabs point of view. Teach two years for less but have your loans forgiven. Come out ahead in the long run and pad the resume at the same time. Teach For Awhile and Smile all the way to the bank!
Where’s the dedication to the teaching profession? Dedication schmedication, we don’t need no stinkin dedication.
Duane, don’t forget the additional $$$$$ for the administrators, CEOs, etc., of UNO. MORE for them, less for teachers…well, TFAs. Let’s FORGET that UNO misappropriated funds & (temporarily) had funding withheld.
And this was only temporary, of course, due to the clout factor.
Now, this misspending of state dollars seems to have been conveniently forgotten. Haven’t heard anything about it lately.
Funny, haven’t heard from that reporter who broke the story lately either…?
It appalls me how the people charged with administrating public education on the highest levels are actually hostile to public education.
Diane this is heartbreaking. We knew it was coming, we knew. What is with these people? Are you and Hannah Nguyen the only people in America who can go toe-to-toe with these horrible people? I know some badass teachers who are angry too.
If a public school teacher is a TFA teacher, are they in the same database as college trained teachers, or in a separate one for 5 weeks trained? Public school students need college trained teachers. Otherwise they are going to school under false pretenses. We need to educate America’s students, not exploit them.
I had the awesomeopportunity to teach a group of aspiring teachers this summer. They are in their first year of grad school and they are paying good money to earn their degree/license. They are inspiring and committed. I hope that when they graduate, they will have an opportunity to teach in my school district. However, this district relies heavily on TFA.
Appalling. Anyone who has spent any significant amount of time in a classroom knows that five weeks of training will be about enough to know when to run when kids start to eat them alive. This makes a mockery of the teaching profession and I am certain that the proof will be in the results. The biggest tragedy is that students are the real sacrificial lambs. Education is not guesswork and so many other countries are figuring out what works and doing it. How do people continue to allow this?!
I worked in a Boston Public School with a TFA. The poor thing could not even put her books into levels or genres. Point being: she went to school for 5 weeks to learn how to educate a child. I spent 4 years & took every class about education before I could graduate with a B.S. in Elementary Education. I also had to spend I entire semester doing my practicum at an elementary school, in 2 different grade levels.
So you tell me why they can’t cut the ribbon.
Not to mention the fact, Mitzianne, that most of us CONTINUE to go to school, workshops, continuing ed., join professional organizations, attend additional training to better teach kids, etc.
I do not know any TFA “graduates” (& I’ve spoken to quite a few) who do any of these things. As one who has done the aforementioned (& I did all of this even before the state required Continuing Professional Development Units for certification), it is absolutely essential to participate in these activities to increase & improve one’s teaching.
Sick, and yet, ill.
Hey you can’t fault the TFA for having a plan. Maybe the zebra mussels had a spreadsheet for the region.
Chicago is extremely dangerous and full of gangs, homeless people, and there is a huge disparity between wealthy and poor areas. It is a very racially segregated city. The West is a large Hispanic ghetto. The South is an enormous black ghetto, and this surrounds the University of Chicago where students live in fear. This begins just South of the Sears Tower (Willis) and basically runs to Indiana. The area immediately West of the loop is the most dangerous place I have ever seen. Men warming their hands over barrels on fire, every second house a ruin, blatant drug sales and gangs, prostitutes. Young kids throwing rocks at cars and screaming swear words. No police presence of any kind. I think they are afraid to drive there. The thin slice of the North side next to the lake is more affluent (loop to Wrigleyville), but there are roving gangs who drive through it all night looking for “victims.” This strip that runs along the lake from Loop to Wrigleyville is where you can see a few white people or Asians. (the few who remain in the city, and those who don’t have kids yet). Some stay and send their kids to private schools. All of the ones I know like that have been mugged several times (knife and gunpoint). Many people you see in the city just come in to work in the city and then quickly leave back to the suburbs. North of Wrigleyville and South of Evanston is another strip of dangerous ghetto (No-go area). This is where people who rode their bikes were getting beaten by gangs, dragged off their bikes, etc. These people were white males with glasses who drank Lattes at Starbucks, read the NYT, and believed that all people are basically good at heart. Don’t miss the last subway train at night back to Evanston and walk down to find a cab at Howard Street, it may be your last! They wait for the stragglers. This is what Chicago is now. Good luck to the TFAers! Enjoy!
Sorry, John, but posting racist lies about Chicago doesn’t exactly strengthen the case against so-called education reform. Your generalizations are simply false; why do you bother to post them?
That is the most far-fetched, hyperbolic description of Chicago that I’ve ever seen! It is so distant from the truth that it is almost funny – except that your blatant generalizations and total misinformation are fictional and racist. Stop commenting about a subject on which you are (so obviously) ignorant.
If parents are truly upset about the closing of their schools their best recourse could be a complete boycott of the TFA charters.
…and demand that their teachers have four year teaching degrees and even master degrees!
And the message to the public? Teachers don’t need to be highly qualified. Teaching is easy. Teachers are of minimal importance. The war on educators has the U.S. rushing in the opposite direction of those counties, like Finland, which we’re suppose to be emulating.There is certainly a brick wall up ahead.
What concerns me the most, however, is the lack of any meaningful response from the AFT or the NEA.
Absolutely fiendish.
FYI, everyone, “private” does not mean “for profit”. I don’t think anyone will be making money out of this venture, seeing as Chicago has so little to fund it with.
This is how the private can profit…
http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/19982926-452/uno-charter-school-scandal-has-wall-street-worried.html
Scabsforamerica.org – contribute. Now.
This is terrible. It’s everywhere now. Diane was right about charter schools bankrupting Nashville:
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130910/NEWS04/309100135/Metro-raises-possibility-closing-some-schools
“Register said the district has had a “number of conversations” about consolidating certain schools. His staff handed board members and media Tuesday a list of 12 schools that are below 70 percent capacity. Most are in North or East Nashville [majority-African-American neighborhoods].
“Budget talks come amid a fierce debate over the cost of charter schools on the district, with the school board tapping a Washington, D.C., attorney who has said the state law that outlines the funding mechanism for privately run, publicly funded charters is unconstitutional. State Attorney General Robert Cooper issued an opinion this week in which he disagreed.
“By next year, 22 charters will be operating in Nashville, with an expected 6,212 students attending them. School officials have chalked up a $62.3 million budget line-item for operating all 22, with $22.8 million needed to cover new schools and the expansion of existing charters.
“…most of the underused schools are in neighborhoods with charters.”
This is terrible. It’s everywhere now. School closings now eminent in Nashville — Diane was right about this too:
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130910/NEWS04/309100135/Metro-raises-possibility-closing-some-schools
“Register said the district has had a “number of conversations” about consolidating certain schools. His staff handed board members and media Tuesday a list of 12 schools that are below 70 percent capacity. Most are in North or East Nashville [majority-African-American neighborhoods]…
“By next year, 22 charters will be operating in Nashville, with an expected 6,212 students attending them. School officials have chalked up a $62.3 million budget line-item for operating all 22, with $22.8 million needed to cover new schools and the expansion of existing charters.
“…most of the underused schools are in neighborhoods with charters.”
http://www.scabsforamerica.com – it’s true: TFA is officially a scab organization!
scabsforamerica.org, that is…..
They’re bringing in this stuff -Charter Schools, and the associated union-busting – in New Zealand, too. I have commented on this on my blog http://convincingreasons.wordpress.com/2013/09/29/charter-schools-and-union-busting/