Gary Rubinstein is an alum of Teach for America. He joined long ago, in 1990. He is now a career math teacher. He was a faithful alum until the 20th anniversary bash, five years ago. At that time, he heard Arne Duncan make claims about a “miracle”school in Chicago, and Gary rebelled. He didn’t drink the Kool-aid. Gary became TFA’s best-informed critic.
Now he will attend the 25th anniversary, and he will fact-check the claims and boasts on a blog created for that purpose. It is called:
So if you want to follow Gary’s adventures and send him your thoughts and support, visit his new blog.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is a savvy way to get some alternative narratives much needed publicity.
I cannot confirm or deny, but according to the usual unreliable sources…
When informed that Gary R was going to attend the TFA25LoveFest, Michelle Rhee is reported to have said [in a rheephorm version of Obi-Wan’s classic lines from Star Wars]:
“I feel a great disturbance in the Farce, as if millions of self-serving lies suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible is about to happen.”
😎
Do not equate Michelle Rhee with ObiWan Kenobi. Even in satire…it just isn’t right.
“I feel a great disturbance in the Farce”
TAGO Krazy.
Slightly related, a Democratic “rising star” and former TFAer is running for state legislature in Cincinnati. From his work against teacher unions in New Mexico (as a student at Yale Law School), he gives all appearances of being a big-time Ed Reformer: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/01/29/teach-america-director-out-raises-union-leader/79510798/
You don’t have to look far to find the weird obsession with labor unions in ed reform:
“Ben Lindy, who is running for the Ohio House 31st District seat, could be stripped of the benefits given to a candidate by the Hamilton County Democratic Party next week after the recent revelation that the Hyde Park resident wrote what some say was an anti-union paper while in law school at Yale University.
It’s not just any paper, though. Lindy’s research is being used in a U.S. Supreme Court case that could severely weaken collective bargaining rights for unions nationwide, including in Ohio.”
I’m still waiting to meet an Ohio public school parent who focuses on labor unions when they’re evaluating their child’s school or this state’s public school system, and I live in a conservative part of the state. I have literally never heard one parent mention “labor unions” as a problem in schools, over 25 years.
I have heard a lot about funding and testing and the Common Core, though.
Also, Deray McKesson, TFA alum and fifth columnist inside Black Lives Matter, has said he will run for mayor of Baltimore.