Gary Rubinstein heard that Teach for America corps members were persuaded not to take part in teachers’ strikes.
But did they stay neutral?
They are scabs if they don’t strike. They risk their Americorps funding if they do.
What do they do?
What do you think?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Teach for America’s most deeply held fundamental guiding principle is that unions are bad and must be destroyed. If TfA recruits wind up striking, that would be a signal of the beginning of the end for Teach for America.
And I’m here for it.
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A recent study of NC teacher turnover had 91% of TFAs gone just after their two year “commitment.” If most TFA’s are temps, it is unlikely they willpay for union representation or risk losing money by violating their two-year “commitment.”
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NC had a superb state funded program to prepare career teachers called the NC Teaching Fellows program. A six year commitment.
It was killed by the rightwing legislature in 2010 and its funding transferred to TFA
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TFA is no better in practice than scabs during a strike. They are a anti-public school organization, which in my opinion, is a political position. The collect lots of money from anti-union billionaires. Since the Supreme Court has declared that money is speech, they are by definition making a political statement. They should not be allow to practice their illegitimate association with public schools, and they should not enjoy non-profit status. Do we accept unlicensed doctors, lawyers in their respective professions? Why are unlicensed practitioners permitted to replace legitimate teachers in any public school? I can understand putting fake teachers in fake public school charters. States need to revise their certification laws that would ever allow this injustice to continue.
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All I can do is speak for myself based on what I did in a similar situation when I was a long-term substitute teacher in the district where I eventually was hired more than a year later.
As a long-term sub back in the 1970s, without job protection of any kind, I walked the picket lines with the full-time teachers to support them and lost the chance to be hired full time that year. I had to sub another full year before a maverick principal hired me in another school in the same district because his teachers requested me to be their subs when they were out more than any other sub at that school.
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You paid your dues, Lloyd. You followed a state approved path to certification. There is a huge difference between the way you entered the profession and TFA. The state was in control of your process. TFA is a corporate carpetbagger that cheapens the whole profession.
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TFA should receive no government funding.
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There are a few teachers from China at my school in Los Angeles, here on hb-1 work visas. During the strike, there were inadequately answered questions about whether these Mandarin language teachers would risk losing their visas if they walked with us and be sent back to China. They all decided to take the risk and refuse to cross the picket line. It was, in my opinion, a sacrifice for which they are to be greatly lauded. Their entire livelihoods and residences hung in the balance, as far as we knew.
Do TFA members who cross picket lines take the same level of risk? No. Are hb-1 visa teachers prohibited from participating in union activities by federal law regarding Americorps funding like TFA members? No. Do TFA members have specialized skills or knowledge like hb-1 visa teachers? No. The fact is that TFA members are simply union busting scabs before there is even a strike. They are already pariahs even when there is no strike taking place. Any TFA scab who cannot handle making a financial sacrifice on behalf of lower class sizes and reasonable pay should be treated as the enemy of public education they are. They are scabs if they cross lines. Scabs do not deserve sympathy. Americorps is wrong in this case.
The entire concept of TFA is wrong. TFA deserves no quarter. Shut it down.
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Many are lured in with false promises and incomplete information. They are young and idealistic. State laws need to change so these young people can be redirected to legitimate programs that lead to real credentials.
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“So it seems, then, to be a pretty easy decision for corps member. Considering that they would be risking becoming pariahs in their own schools after the few days of the strike, it would not be worth it to cross the picket line. But there is another caveat — Teach For America corps members are also part of something called AmeriCorps, which provides them additional money, I think $10,000 over the two years. Now AmeriCorps has some additional rules and one of them says that you cannot participate in a strike when you are getting credit for AmeriCorps hours.”
Only an (ex)insider can find such a caveat. Wow.
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