TFA is clearly a very successful operation. It places some 10,000 or so young college graduates in the nation’s schools each year, after giving them five weeks of training. They commit to stay for two years but some stay for three or four, and a few stay longer. Districts pay TFA $2,000-5,000 for each recruit.
According to a recent article in Reuters, TFA has assets of $300 million.
TFA has an awesome fund-raising machine. It won $50 million from the U.S. Department of Education; another $49.5 million from the very conservative Walton Foundation; $100 million from a consortium of four foundations; and untold millions from corporate donors.
This reader wondered why JC Penny was collecting donations for TFA. Another reader said that other big corporations are also fund-raising for TFA. When I went to my bank’s ATM, I was informed that I could donate $1 to TFA.
This reader asks why TFA is so aggressive in advancing its own power:
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sent to three local papers:
Isn’t it ironic that the news stations and many fans are more upset about a second-rate referee making a bad call in a football game, but they are not so worried about untrained, novice TFA teachers practicing on our kids for 180+ days and then ditching the profession?
No wonder the teaching profession is doomed.
Will the politicians and corporate reformers be working to dismantle the referees’ union as fiercely as they are the teachers’ union?
Yes, isn’t it astounding for all the right-wingers to be calling for the “experienced” refs to come back? I guess experience matters in reffing. Not so much in education. And there’s the fact that these “experienced” refs are unionized. Hmmm….
Oh please Diane…point out the hypocracies in the football referee CRISIS….experienced ones we need….not so much in teaching though. Amateur second stringers are hurting the game…not so much in teaching though….I wonder if Billy G and Rupert and Joel and Mikey B. are football fans…maybe not…unless or course they can cash in somehow.
Please read “Learning on Other People’s Kids: Becomig a Teach for America Teacher. It supports the argument.
Laughed so hard I cried – or is it the other way round! Thanks
TFA is beginning to act like a traditional charity. And now they want to find ways to raise unrestricted funds. Asking for donations is the way to do that – grants (usually) have strings attached dictating what the money can be used for. If you’re just giving money, it’s harder to add those restrictions. And collecting money at the register is a quick and easy way to do that. And in case you haven’t been to a register lately, everyone is doing it. I’m getting asked at every major store (grocery store, Target, etc.) if I want to give “$1” for cause. I’m sure they’ve got staff traveling around the country (world?) asking high-worth individuals to make gifts. And going for low-amount, high volume, donations is a piece of that. Just ask March of Dimes how much they make from those card-board things at the register that you stick your spare change on.
I always figured that the efficacy of a referree peaks and tapers off after about five years…
Two quick quips: I’m thinking that TFA is just one step and a few years removed from sending kids around Halloween with a little red school house container.Trick-or-Treat for TFA. Maybe they’ll replace UNICEF.
The other:
6) TFA participating in expedient policy (such as 60 students in a class in Detroit)
Not only will this end badly, but would this be allowed in a middle-class or suburban school district? Talk about schooling as a “civil rights” issue. This is a “civil rights” violation. Yikes!
I’m not the least bit surprised. It’s part and parcel of the “free market schools” marketing program that spawned TfA. You never have enough revenue/assets/income.
It is a very smart way of making Joe Public a stakeholder for TFA. Typical mindset is that we donate to good causes that help those less fortunate than us. Now every time someone sees TFA that will pop into their head. Also people like things they support to succeed, not fail. If I make a donation no matter how small to TFA, which side of the debate will I be more likely to believe and support. Not trying to over kill the NFL MNF ref thing, but look at what the Seattle coaches, players and fans are saying in spite of the irrefutable evidence. Same will happen with the TFA/ charters vs. Public schools and educators evidence and debate. Think it’s more about creating a perception than it is about donation money, as is the entire movement. The entire world economy sinks because of the biggest crime in history and only Martha Stewart and Maddoff go to jail. Then to take the focus off that they blame the struggling economy on unions, bad teachers and the education system. Perception is a powerful thing
Molly Horston, Director of COMPASS for the state of Louisiana, holds an expired Level I teaching certificate. She has less than two years of teaching experience though TFA in the D-rated Recovery School District (New Orleans), but according to her Linkeln bio, it is the longest job she has held. This is the clincher: Her teaching certificate expired BECAUSE SHE FAILED TO COMPLETE THE NECESSARY ASSESSMENT FOR RENEWAL. (Info available on the Teach Louisiana website.)
Please post the link.
I just added this link to the article about TFA written by Stephanie Simon of Reuters: https://dianeravitch.net/2012/08/20/an-astonishing-article-about-tfa/
Molly Horstman, not Horston. Sorry for the error.
I really get tired of seeing ways to “donate” to education only to find that it goes to TFA. A couple of years ago I saw where one could donate an old iPad to “help students,” and it would go to TFA. After spending my own money on laptops for my students, it just made me sick.
Yes, and “Donors Choose” also gives money to TFA. In honor of my retirement, my niece donated money to “D.C.” to directly fund a class project for her sister’s 1st Grade classroom (&, no, her sister is a certified teacher in a public school!). A year later, I had read (perhaps even in this blog) that “D.C.” was donating money to TFA! It sickened all 3 of us! However, I must add this: if the money goes to a particular TFA teacher’s classroom project, that shouldn’t be too harsh, because my understanding is that–just as is happening in many charter schools–teachers are not given much/anything in the way of supplies (doncha’ know the big $$$ are going to the top, i.e., the CEO, just like GM & other corporations), and the TFAers are buying their students materials, as well.
PLUS–their salaries are dreadful. So–what do the kids get out of this, unless “D.C.”
contributes to specific projects?
TFA also invests a lot of energy in asking former TFA teachers to donate to TFA…even the ones who still work as public education teachers.