The Importance Of Teach For America

Since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, 4,500 public school teachers were fired in the city. The storm is the cause of this city’s struggling public schools system. Also, the public schools population has dropped dramatically. In 2010, studies found 4,000 teens, which is about 10 percent of the city’s student population not even enrolled in school (Vanacore 1). The city has fired 7,500 unionized teachers and other school employees, predominately African

American women (Shaw 1). The storm played a huge role in the loss of so many teachers, which lead to TFA.

Teach For America, is a nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to “enlist, develop, and mobilize as many as possible of our nation’s most promising future leaders

TFA had 39 percent people of color in 2011. This increase to 44 percent in 2014 (Korn 2). Although, Teach For America has

been helpful to the city’s needs, it has been stated that veteran teachers are needed. It has been

proven that students of high-needs, need veteran teachers. Instead, they receive the TFA

teachers, who are new to teaching (Miller 1). TFA recruits get hired more often because they

work for less amount of money. The average salary ranges from $24,000 to $55,000 for TFA

teachers (Frith 2). The average for an annual Public School teacher ranges from $46,000 to

$61,000. More than 50 percent of TFA teachers always get the teaching job.

It just goes to show you that teachers with more experience knows how to control certain

situations better. In 2013-14, Jefferson Parish principles hired 44 Teach For America recruits,

the following year, it hired only 18 (Blanchard 1). I have myself done some research and I’ve found some evidence that not all TFA

teachers are the best. Jessica Smith, a former TFA worker, agrees with Olivia Blanchard

In May, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed a $1.5 million grant to Teach for America,

saying that the organization has $350 million in assets and does not need the state 's help (Clara

1). Diane Ravitch laments Teach for America 's alleged plot "to groom" future education reform

leaders. Slate blogger Matt Iglesias responds that the debate is one set of teachers against

another (Anthony 1). By guest blogger Stephen Sawchuk. This post originally appeared on

EdWeek 's Teacher Beat blog. The founder of the Teach For America program, Wendy Kopp,

will step down as the organization 's chief executive officer, but will remain active in the

organization by assuming the role of chairwoman of i... (Liana 1). J. Crew, a most popular brand

among young professionals, is now selling a t-shirt in support of the nonprofit--and

controversial--teacher placement program, Teach for America (Liana 1). The satirical

newspaper The Onion went after Teach for America today, with predictably comic results

(Liana 1).

Teach for America announced today that, as of this fall, the group will have more than

10,000 first- and second-year corps members working in schools—the largest corps yet and