A resident in Néw Jersey, one of the nation’s highest-performing states, wonders why the Legislature might pay Teach for America to lease inexperienced, uncertified young recruits who promise to stay for only two years:
“Members of the NJ legislature are considering a bill that would allocate taxpayer funding for placement of Teach for America recruits into at-risk schools. TFA lobbied these legislators with “an idea” before anyone else could educate them on the topic.
“Public funding should not be used as placement fees for people with 5 weeks of training and no certification, and who can drop out after two years. This action is not building a base of experienced and credentialed teachers, AND it is siphoning public money from an already strapped public school budget.
“Please call Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan, Chair of the Assembly Education Committee, at
(908) 757-1677. Tell him you oppose A-2032 and hope he does not post it for a hearing in his committee.
“Spread the word.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In the past, it was employers who paid scabs to break unions. Now, in the Age of School Privateering, they’re to be paid for by tax dollars.
Talk about the ultimate indignity: teachers’ tax dollars are to be used to replace them with temps.
I want to know how I can find me an inexperienced-uncertified doctor…or maybe an electrician. They are just so much cheaper and that’s really all that matters, right?
Sign up for Obama Care.
The sad part is the legislators in question think they are doing a good thing. They need to hear from us to know just how this organization trains its recruits. They also need to know that the problems at-risk populations have are not caused by their teachers, as if inner city public school teachers are not professional, not trained, and not capable. The wrong message got to them first. It’s time to send the correct one.
Diane, I am a former lobbyist for NJEA and I just did a search on the bill, which was introduced in January. It has been referred to the Higher Education Committee, not the Education Committee. I am having trouble finding anything but a summary description of the bill, which does not mention TFA. Please check with your source on this matter, and I will follow up. Rob Broderick
(I tried posting this comment several times, but I keep getting a message that says I’ve already posted it. I apologize if it is duplicated.)
Rob, this notice came from NJEA itself. I also checked, and yes, the bill does not mention TFA in its language. The bill is worded so that it does not name “a” specific organization, yet it mentions “a” district to receive placements from “an” organization. Current NJEA lobbyists are confirming that TFA approached the legislators to sponsor this bill.
I’ve already made my phone call.
The chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee is Celeste Riley, (856) 339-0808; vice-chair is a labor leader, Tom Giblin, (973) 779-3125. They should both be asked by educators to hold the bill.
Rob Broderick
This from a current NJEA lobbyist:
“The bill was introduced from Riley’s committee in January, but it hasn’t been heard in any committee yet — which is what we want to stop from happening. We don’t want it to move from the introductory stage.”
So we need to keep the pressure on Diegnan. Call Assemblyman Diegnan: (908) 757-1677 and ask everyone you know in NJ to do the same.
Well I know where the NJ TFA contingency can head if NJ votes them out… to MD.. specifically PG County where a mega millionaire just donated a million dollars to increase TFA presence and the PG CEO of Schools happily accepted.
I hope NJ wins the fight.
I hope NJ wins the fight but that PG County wakes up about the “TFA” issue!
This is nuts. TFA sucks on the federal teat to the tune of $50 million. One of Diane’s other posts today shows the $20 million TFA got from the Walton Foundation.
Why does TFA demanding this money from cash strapped states.
Newark’s Teacher’s village is a match made in heaven with TFA. NJ lege must make sure the model corporate town is full of serfs. I wonder if the TFA tenants will be paid in dollars or in town script?
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-is-teachers-village.html
The crowd of more than 200 piled into a tent at the site at the corner of Halsey and William streets, two blocks from the Prudential Center. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, whose urban investment group helped finance the project, said projects like Teachers Village are exactly the types of opportunities they look for to support economic growth. – See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-is-teachers-village.html#sthash.Ff8er591.dpuf
Reverse robin hood.. rob from the poor and give to the rich.. remember everything the “ed reformers” say seems to be the opposite …
This is my note:
Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan
Chair, Education Committee
Dear Assemblyman Diegnan,
As a veteran public school educator in Pennsauken, I urge you to table Bill A-2032, which allocates taxpayer funding of Teach for America corps members in New Jersey public schools.
TFA began with an ostensibly worthy goal – helping out in schools (especially those in rural districts) that were difficult to staff. The scope of their mission has expanded to include significant political and lobbying activity. Their new goal appears to be the displacement of long term teachers by intelligent temporary workers on their way to other fields of endeavor. This is part of a greater strategy that shifts public dollars into the private pockets of “edu-preneurs” who would offer (in many cases) a substandard education model for those families least able to fight.
Cami Anderson’s One Newark plan is a perfect example – she has already proposed eliminating up to 1000 dedicated educators over the next three years. Goldman Sachs has already funded the construction of Teachers’ Village, designed to house TFA corps members while they work in Newark. There are not many dots to connect to see Cami (a TFA alum herself, I believe) placing those kids in the jobs she eliminated.
The problem is not the TFA recruits – they’re good kids who’ve been sold a bill of goods by Wendy Kopp, the organization’s founder. They would be better served by being used as teachers’ aides in our neediest schools, working with veteran teachers to help our neediest children. Our kids need consistent, committed, experienced educators, not two-year temps.
There is a lot of resistance to the education “reform” ideas being force fed by Murdoch, Gates, Walton and the hedge fund boys of Wall St. Please listen to those of us who actually KNOW something about teaching and learning and keep this bill from even being considered.
Respectfully,
Michael Kaufman
Cherry Hill, NJ
Sent from my iPad, which likes to change my words and spelling.
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When an employer, like a school system, is unable to attract qualified candidates, compensation increases until workers respond, by offering their services. TFA is an end run around the free enterprise system. Plutocrats like Bill Gates and the Koch’s want to create a banana republic, under the guise of an economic system, that they try to subvert.
Qualified teachers are important for their children but not, ours. We the people, are collectively, willing to pay for public education, for our children. How dare they commandeer it and destroy it, with the complicity of politicians they pay for.
Our statement to the Gates and Koch’s, should be, “Shut down your businesses and leave our nation. Your competitors make better products, which U.S. consumers will eagerly buy. Poorly designed search engine software and toilet paper that is easily duplicated, does not indebt, the USA, to you. American people did not and, do not make, great sacrifices for equal opportunity and a system based on fair play so that you can betray the country by turning it into a land of oligarchs.”
I want to see the TFA teachers in Jersey City with the fight.
Seems we already have PFA, Politicians For America, running the country. Why not in schools.
In the April 2014 edition of the NJEA Review, this bill is discussed. This bill A-2032 was introduced by Democrat Lou Greenwald. Greenwald is part of the South Jersey Dems who are aligned with Democratiic party boss George Norcross. Norcross is backing the state takeover and charterization of Camden. From the Review, “The bill was believed to have been introduced at the request of TFA and it is similar to ALEC-endorsed bills that have been introduced in other states.”
Norcross has a vested interest in the dismantling of the Camden Schools. He is pro-charter. He’s backed other anti-teacher bills including the pension bill which eliminated the cost of living raises for current and future retirees. And again, he’s a Democrat. He was also behind the Dems abandoning Barbara Buono when she ran against Chris Christie.
After looking at the state government site, this bill was referred to the Higher Education Committee. The Chair of that committee is Celeste Riley. Ironically she is an elementary school teacher. She should be flooded with mail. However, I have my doubts that she will act independently. Rather I think she will follow whatever Boss Norcross wants and I have a feeling he wants this bill.
NJ is run by Christie, Sweeney, and Norcross. They are constructing a state that benefits big money, ruined unions, big business, and no more middle class.
There is not one professional field where “inexperienced” trumps “experience”. All of the legislators who support the systematic destruction of public schools in New Jersey should not only be ashamed of themselves, but they should also look forward to the legacy they leave behind for their children, grandchildren, etc. Their actions are an embarrassment to the hardworking people of the great state on New Jersey!
Spread the word to the uniformed. Unfortunately, there are still so many out there.
If you live or work in NJ (whether NJEA, AFT, or just concerned citizen), pass this on to your colleagues. Inform them in your building meetings, at lunch, in the hallways, as you are walking out to your car, whatever you need to do. Ask them to have their family members call Diegnan as well. It takes just minutes to do this.