Rachel M. Cohen tells an important and powerful story of the time when Senator Bernie Sanders stood up to Teach for America.
His efforts were ultimately defeated by Arne Duncan, Senator Michael Bennett of Colorado, and Eli Broad.
In 2011, the Obama administration and TFA’s friends in Congress were eager to call the program’s inexperienced and ill-trained recruits “highly qualified,” to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Law. At that time, Sanders was the only member of Congress to question how a recent college graduate who had never taught could be considered “highly qualified.”
TFA enjoyed the vigorous support of the Obama administration, which gave the wealthy organization $50 million in 2010 (as did the ultra conservative, anti-union Walton Family Foundation). In addition, TFA placed its alums on the staff of every member of the Senate and House education committees, thanks to the generosity of a California billionaire named Arthur Rock, who are then in a position to protect TFA’s interests as well as funding for charter schools. TFA recognized that few if any members of Congress pay close attention to education, since the federal role in education is small, especially compared to issues like healthcare, Social Security, and foreign policy. Thus, most rely on junior staff to inform them, which gives extraordinary power to the TFA plants.
Cohen tells the story of TFA’s battle to ensure that its uncertified recruits were considered “highly qualified” teachers, an oxymoron.
Beginning in the mid-2000s, the group was enmeshed in a dispute over teacher credentialing under the No Child Left Behind Act that demonstrated its ability to marshal influence in D.C. Under the law, a school district was permitted to hire educators who did not meet the “highly qualified” bar if there were teacher shortages. Schools that did so, however, had to then inform parents if their child was taught by such a teacher, publicly disclose how many teachers in the entire school were not highly qualified, and develop a plan to reach 100 percent highly qualified teachers. The law also barred schools from disproportionately concentrating inexperienced and uncertified teachers in classrooms with low-income students and students of color. In other words, if noncertified teachers had to be hired, they also had to be fairly distributed across schools.
Teach for America and its allies in the education reform community lobbied the government, and in 2002, the Department of Education issued a regulation that said “highly qualified” teachers could now also include unlicensed teachers for up to three years if they were making progress toward their certification. This effectively resolved the problem for Teach For America, as most program recruits planned to leave the classroom at the end of their assignment anyway.
In 2007, the civil rights law firm Public Advocates filed a suit against the Department of Education over this regulation. In effect, the lawyers argued, it created an exemption that condoned the assignment of novice, inexperienced teachers to students in high-poverty schools, which are disproportionately nonwhite and low-income.
“It seemed pretty simple to us all along that you can’t have a law that requires ‘full state certification’ for teachers to be highly qualified and also say that people who are in the process of getting their certification meet that designation,” said John Affeldt, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs. “Those are two different states of being.”
Affeldt said there was little question as to why the 2002 regulation came about. “Teach for America applied pressure because they saw the original statute as threatening to their model and to the growth of their organization,” he said. “At some point between its founding and the mid-2000s, Teach for America had changed its belief system from ‘Every student needs fully qualified, highly effective teachers’ to ‘Every student needs us.’ TFA’s model depends on being able to concentrate their people in low-income, high-minority schools, and they thought that was a good thing. And if the law incentivized districts to hire other types of teachers ahead of TFA, well, they didn’t want that. They wanted to be seen on the same level, and some in leadership truly believe that TFA’s teachers-in-training are as good or even better qualified than certified teachers who might apply.”
TFA fought the lawsuit in court and lost, then flexed its political muscles in Congress to protect its interests. The Democrat-controlled Congress overrode the court decision, which infuriated civil rights groups, which actually wanted highly qualified teachers in the classrooms of the neediest students.
The civil rights groups turned to Senator Sanders to fight their battle against TFA. He took up their banner, insisting that “highly qualified” should actually mean “highly qualified.”
In a Senate HELP committee hearing, Sanders emphasized that his amendments would not conflict with the goal of attracting new, bright teachers to the classroom, and said he is “a strong supporter of programs like Teach for America and other efforts to attract young people into education.” But, he stressed, it is wrong to characterize someone starting in the classroom two months after college graduation as already highly prepared.
“I think most of the people around this table would agree that doesn’t make any sense,” Sanders said. “That doesn’t make that person not a good teacher, not an inspired teacher; it simply does not make that teacher ‘highly qualified.’”
“If you had a heart condition, and you were going to go to a surgeon, you would go to a surgeon who has many surgeries successfully done,” he added. “And while another surgeon may be wonderful, a young surgeon who hasn’t yet performed his first surgery, you would probably go to the experienced [surgeon] who has already achieved a certain level of accomplishment.”
But Sanders’ efforts were countered and ultimately defeated by the persistent opposition of Senator Michael Bennett, recently appointed to the Senate after serving as superintendent of the Denver Public Schools. Bennett was and is a huge supporter of corporate reform. He is not an educator. Before his appointment to manage the Denver schools, he was a financier.
When the issue came up again a year later, members of Congress were lobbied by billionaire Eli Broad, who was then vice-president of the neoliberal Center for American Progress and an array of corporate charter chains, which needed TFA recruits. They falsely claimed that without the TFA loophole, “hundreds of thousands of tremendously gifted teachers who have a significant impact on students will not be able to continue to teach.”
Cohen points out that Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro conducted a study that determined that more than 800,000 of the nation’s neediest students had teachers who were still in training, not certified, certainly not “highly qualified.”
This is an excellent analysis of how TFA flexed its muscles and power to defend its self-interest, undermine the plain language of the law, and inflict unqualified teachers on children who actually needed—but didn’t get—highly qualified teachers.
It makes me think of TFAer Michelle Rhee taping children’s mouth shut because she had zero classroom management strategies. And years later while giving a talk, she laughed along with her audience after telling them how some children bled when she took the tape off.
Unlike many politicians Sanders votes his conscience and does not yield to partisan pressure or outside groups. He saw right through the flaws in TFA.
It should be noted Sanders was a dissenting vote against the war in Iraq. He votes his conscience, and he has a good sense of right and wrong.
That’s what true independents do.
Acolytes of both major parties vote however party leaders tell them to vote.
Sometimes, if the outcome of a vote is certain, the acolytes are allowed by the party leaders to “split off” and pretend that they have a conscience, but only in such cases.
After the umpteenth time, it is all very predictable.
With regards to the War in Iraq, Six House Republicans and one Independent joined 126 Democratic members of the House of Representatives in voting NAY. In the Senate, 21 Democrats, one Republic, and one Independent (Bernie) voted in 2002 against the War in Iraq.
Those who voted Nay included Nancy Pelosi.
It is true that so-called moderate Republicans like Susan Collins are only allowed to vote the way Mitch McConnell allows. But the same is not true of the Democrats. That is why there is an enormous difference between the two parties. That’s why AOC ran as a Democrat. She has never bashed the party nor claimed that she has been ordered to vote a certain way and I am certain she would not do so unless it was part of a compromise where she was getting something that was important to her in exchange.
Bernie and Elizabeth are not the same.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/no-warren-and-sanders-are-not-the-same/
Thanks for link. Progressives should understand that there are significant differences between Bernie and Warren. Although the article mainly focuses on health care, it did not mention that Bernie supports investing in authentic public schools through the Marshall Plan. Warren continues to waffle on the issue of K-12 education, but with a TFA adviser in place, we should continue to ask her to define her plan in detail.
It’s up at Oped news https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/When-Bernie-Sanders-Stood-in-General_News-Bernie-Sanders_Diane-Ravitch_Education_Educational-Crisis-191017-903.html#comment747520
with 2 comments which have many embedded Lins SO GO THERE, and join the conversation at this PROGRESSIVE NEWS SITE… You talk to teachers here… talk to the public there!!!
Comment one
How very sad. Genuine teacher -practitioners have so little respect by people and are not viewed as professional — so the power-elite in government legislatures –who want an ignorant citizenry who will buy their propaganda — rants about ‘choice,’- so they can remove the real voices, the genuine teacher who enables and facilitates learning–and KNOWS WHAT LEARNING LOOKS LIKE
I was there in 1998, when they came after me as I was celebrated as an educator (NYS Educator of Excellence –studied by Harvard in Pew’s National Standards research. I was sought after by parents in NYC (because my students were AT THE TOP OF ALL writing and ELA exams) and accepted in top high schools! I was asked to write a book by a top education publisher –on how I did it: taught critical thinking skills.
The union stood by, and let them remove the best teachers in this nation, tens of thousands were sent packing, and then the schools failed, and charters were sold as “choice.’ talk about fake news, and disinformation.
Go to my series, https://www.opednews.com/Series/15-880-Districts-in-50-Sta-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-140921-34.html?f=15-880-Districts-in-50-Sta-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-140921-34.html
and read about the legislative takeovers http://www.opednews.com/Series/legislature-and-governorsL-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-816.html
and the destruction afoot in the almost sixteen thousand SEPARATE SCHOOL SYSTEMS in 50 STATES.
I began my series about the 15,880 school systems under attack by the legislative takeovers of local school boards, because I follow The Ravitch blog which is a treasure if you want up-to the-minute news on the war on public education..
Now we get “online learning and TFAs and we wonder why youngsters graduate with little skills or knowledge.https://www.opednews.com/Series/15-880-Districts-in-50-Sta-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-140921-34.html?f=15-880-Districts-in-50-Sta-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-140921-34.html
my 2nd comment at OEN Let’s get real…the power elite which controls the media has no intention of allowing any discussion about learning… because the real conversation is NOT about “education”..it is about how people learn to do things, and how our citizens LEARN ABOUT TRUTH AND HISTORY.
You cannot have an educated citizenry and elect a Trump.
It is Shared knowledge that MAKES DEMOCRACY POSSIBLE.An ignorant citizenry is the goal, not just the profit made by the businesses that take over our schools
Click to access hirsch.pdf
Democracy depends on shared knowledge… it is the CRUX of this silence on the demolition of public education that Diane has written about for decades. click here
Look how this will work via “unchecked disinformation and media manipulation” to demonize Biden and anyone who might challenge the power -elite.
Yes, the. power elite corporate entities (i.e. big Pharma) and people with more money than most nations who make zillions from privatizing health care; and now, with the grand theft of public taxes they will enrich THEMSELVES by selling/pushing the idea /lie of school ‘choice’.
The need to dumb us down as John Gatto explains https://www.opednews.com/articles/John-Taylor-Gatto-author-by-Rob-Kall-Education_Public-Education_Public-Education_School-151220-456.html
BUT– The public will NEVER know how they removed the professionals from the schools because they need to dumb down the people, and feed them endless misinformation and disinformation. They sell lies… and they are good at it!
That’s the reason that there will NEVER be a genuine CONVERSATION ABOUT WHAT LEARNING LOOKS LIKE and WHAT MUST BE IN PLACE.
Propaganda is the tool to their power, and the 21st century has given them the internet– place of anarchy–where lies propagate!
I was one of the first teachers to fall as the assault on the professionals began… so they could end the VOICES THAT BRING KNOWLEDGE to our citizens.
None of the candidates will ever bring back the iNSTITUTION of Public Education… not if they want to be elected! Bernie may talk a good talk, but he ain’t gonna challenge the power-elite…not if he wants to get anything done!
Bernie has already challenged the power elites, eg, with his comment that there should be no billionaires.
That is precisely why the Washington Post (aka Bezos’ How), NY Times, MSNBC, Fox, NPR have pulled out all the stops on the anti Sanders campaign.
Their latest tag team attack on Sanders had to do with using his heart attack as a pretext to claim he is too old, despite the fact that millions of people have blocked arteries and after the same procedure as Sanders go on to live healthy, productive lives with little or no restrictions on what they can do.
Bezos’ Hos
Washington Post = Bezos’ Hos
Bernie looked good at the debate, and he still made much more sense than a lot of the younger candidates.
Sanders makes far too much sense, which is why he is such a threat to the corporate elites and their presstitutes at all the major news organizations, not least of all NPR which seems to have a special enmity toward him.
“I will tell you what the issue is here.The issue is whether the Democratic Party has the guts to stand up to the healthcare industry which made a $100 billion in profits; whether we have the guts to stand up to the corrupt, price-fixing pharmaceutical industry which is charging us the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. If we don’t have the guts to do that—if all we can do is take their money—we should be ashamed of ourselves.” –Bernie Sanders
If that is not challenging the power elites, nothing is.
This is precisely why they attack him and why their water boy Biden attacks him.
Feel the Bern. Sanders continues to raise big bucks from the citizens who are only able to contribute small amounts.
Pete gets his bucks from corporate interests.
Lest anyone believe that I exaggerate when I say that Biden has attacked Sanders I would note that he just accused both Sanders and Warren of “playing Trump’s game and trying to con the American people” by supporting Medicare for All.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/17/supporting-medicare-all-biden-accuses-sanders-and-warren-playing-trumps-game-and
Biden is just pathetic.
It’s worth pointing out that “qualified” has more than one meaning.
To qualify something (eg, recommendation ) means to add something which limits or makes it conditional.
So a “qualified teacher candidate” need not possess the necessary skill and knowledge for the job.
In fact, a “highly qualified candidate ” could actually be one that is very limited.
Huffpost reporting, “In their attempt (Moral Majority’s Jerry Falwell) to ‘christianize’ American culture, they ended up de-christianizing it”. Explaining why there are fewer Christians in America today – religion is tied to conservative Republicans who are disliked for hypocrisy and authoritarianism.
The Federalist Society and, evangelicals and Catholics behind school privatization show us a last ditch effort to preserve an economic system that robs people of democracy, security and dignity and that imposes white male domination.
I like watching the televangelists on late night TV, especially Joel Osteen, who looks like he’s made of plastic and could easily pass for Barbie’sboyfriend Ken.
It’s very entertaining, in a disturbing sort of way.
The US is far more religious than Europe.
Linda
It’s not just the association with Conservative Republicans that turns people off to religion.
Show me a major religion that is NOT authoritarian and hypocritical and I will show you a zebra with spots.
Judaism?
Come to think of it, Buddhism may be the only one.
And there is also Hinduism (and probably some other eastern religions), so I guess I will have to go to the zoo today with some spray paint.
Poet,
Save the paint. I understood you meant religions with sizable populations in the U.S.
Doesn’t help the reputation of Judaism when one of its major organizations gives Robert Kraft an honor for good works.
It’s like Obama giving Gates the Medal of Freedom.
Judaism is not governed by a single organization. There are a broad range of views and practices covered by that one label. I am Jewish and I don’t belong to any organization that honored Robert Kraft.