You might think that, with teacher shortages in many districts, this would be a golden moment for Teach for America. But it is not. Gary Rubinstein, one of the original members of TFA in the early 1990s and now a career teacher in New York City, surveys the current woes of Teach for America in this post. He identifies three reasons for the downturn in TFA’s fortunes.
He begins:
Teach For America has an operating budget of $300 million. Their main responsibility is to recruit and prepare corps members to teach for a minimum of two years in low-income communities. They started in 1990 with 500 corps members. In 1991 they grew to 750 corps members. By 2005 they had 2000 corps members and they peaked in 2012 with 6000. Now, according to Chalkbeat, They are at a 17 year low, back to 2000 recruits.
Teach For America blames their recruitment woes on the pandemic, but I have been following the ups and down of this organization for over 30 years, starting when I was a corps member myself in 1991, and I have a different theory.
There are three reasons why TFA’s popularity is fading, and all three of these reasons stem from an overarching problem — arrogance. In my analysis, those three reasons are: Failure to properly train corps members, ineffective leadership, and a close alliance with a toxic and oversimplified type of education reform based on teacher bashing.
Reason #1 is: Failure to properly train corps members
Reason #2 is: Ineffective Leadership
Guess what Reason #3 is?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
6000 teachers at their peak — wow. They were always tiny.
Yet they produced several state superintendents.
a KEY point
About 15 years ago I attended a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Principal’s conference where the speaker was effusive about the opportunities for private profit once the reformers found their way into public school coffers. Given the foundational influence of Ivy League schools, it was inevitable that TFA would fall down that rabbit hole. Who wouldn’t want an executive remote job that pays $450,000.00 and develops a resume that allows them to move to other ineffective “non-profit” executive endeavors? What the TFA hierarchy doesn’t understand is that good teaching is not mission work, but hard work. TFA has created an Ivory Tower with a mote the size of oceans while they make no effort to understand the cultural aspects of the public schools they claim to serve. Therefore, the disruptive theology of the so-called reform movement simply creates massive boondoggles that enrich a few at the top who simply can’t walk away from the public teat. One thing TFA has certainly demonstrated is that at their core they, and their corporate darlings, believe money makes the world go around. Claiming that teachers are lazy simply gives them an excuse to keep the cash for themselves.
Perhaps enough young people have had a negative experience with TFA so that the rank of newbies is less and less. Let’s face it; TFA is an exploitative enterprise that takes advantage of the enthusiasm and good intentions of young people. I’ve worked with poor students for 90% of my career, and it is not for everyone and certainly not for the minimally trained.
Most of the people at the top of the TFA food chain are into lobbying politicians for more unneeded charter school money. A lot the public is catching on to the scam that privatization is as well.
Gary R. is the most valuable TFA alum!
Reading this makes me feel that there is an apt comparison between TFA and Theranos.
I think there is # 4, and that is districts discovering that TFA is not sustainable for them and an unreliable business model that is unable to meet the recruitment, retention and professional development needs of their students. I blamed local school districts for creating the TFA demand, and now give them
credit for diminishing that demand. It’s seems that now TFA is the chief pipeline for charter schools only. Now the question is: why invest 300 million in an obsolete model?
Corporate “reform” had everyone bamboozled for a while there, but now is dated. All those still clinging to it are trying to rebrand everything as “next generation” reform, but they are just trying to revive a zombie. It is a deeply troubling, creepy zombie.
Teaching: hard work indeed and if the majority or them are like me, ti took experience. I taught for about 40 years and every year. every year. I acquired ,more skills and understanding. I am not the fastest learner I admit but other reliable people have stated that it takes 5 to 7 or 8 years before you begin to have a true understanding of what it is all about. My view; TFA people cannot begin to understand, what it is all about in the time allotted for them to learn. It “ain’t” that easy.