Seattle school board asked who paid $4000 fee for each TFA recruit. They got no answer.

[madfloridian]

TFA simply refused to answer the school district as to who was paying the $4000 for the district. The Seattle school superintendent couldn't tell the board the answer either.

Two or three things: Why do companies providing districts with teachers with 5 weeks training, not even certified teachers....get to ask for such a large recruiting fee? Why a recruiting fee at all? Local teachers who have been laid off can be hired for free, just with an interview and background check both of which are easily done.

And the biggest question is why the secrecy about who is paying the fees? It's really shocking that uncertified teachers can draw $4000 per person for their recruiting company. Teach for America calls itself a non-profit, but they seem to be making much money.

From a Seattle blog:

Under Questioning from Board Members

The school board tabled a motion earlier this week to hire two Teach for America recruits. Teach for America sends idealistic young folks to teach in inner city and low-income districts all around the country.

The board didn’t go for it because one prerequisite the board had set for hiring TFA teachers (a controversial move to start with because TFA teachers aren’t certified) was disclosing where the funding comes from. TFA charges a $4,000 fee for every teacher they deliver and private donors who support getting TFA teachers in Seattle schools said they would cover the cost.

Under questioning from board members Michael DeBell and Sherry Carr, Superintendent Susan Enfield couldn’t say where the money was coming from, so the board unanimously tabled the idea.

Watch the action here. The motion is introduced at the 116 minutes mark and DeBell gets the runaround from Enfield around the 118 mark.

Here's more about the lack of transparency involved in hiring teachers who are not even certified.

School Board Postpones Hiring Of Last Two Teach For America Teachers

The board had to vote on a request to Washington state to let the new potential hires from Teach for America apply for conditional teaching certificates. They need those to teach in public schools. They don't have them because they're fresh out of college, and their only training has been this summer with Teach for America (TFA).

TFA charges the Seattle district $4,000 for each hire. District staff have promised the money will come from private donors.

Since last year, the district has asked the board to approve three votes on TFA without saying where that $4,000 per teacher is coming from. They have also promised it will not come from the Seattle School budget.

A board member said he needed to know where the money was coming from because the public deserves to know whose money is financing the agenda of a private organization in public schools.

Amen to that.

They asked the superintendent who said she did not have the answer right now. If the super doesn't, who does? How very odd.

So they asked TFA.

Ortega: "And our funders are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Bezos Foundation, The Raikes Foundation and the Seattle Foundation, to date. We still have a funding gap that we're pursuing to close."

The TFA website shows those four groups, and JP Morgan Chase, have given over a million dollars.

Bill Gates has given TFA 2.5 million at least. The Broad Foundation and 3 others gave them 100 million. The federal government gave them 50 million.

All this money while public schools are going without so much, while experienced teachers are being laid off. So much wrong with that picture. I still have contacts with teachers who have not yet retired, and they are nervous and scared.

The president appointed Arne Duncan and has given him free reign. Must be true what Eli Broad said....that when Arne Duncan was appointed the "stars were aligned."

[madfloridian]

1. Seattle has more problems with TFA at a university.

http://parentsacrossamerica.org/2011/05/plan-to-host-teach-for-america-at-univ-of-washington-highlights-hypocrisy-of-ed-reform/

"The doublespeak of ed reformers who repeatedly declare that the key to a successful education is to put an “excellent” teacher in every classroom, and then turn around and promote young, Teach for America recruits — with only five weeks’ training, no in-class experience, and only a two-year commitment to the profession — as the answer, has come into sharp focus at the University of Washington in Seattle these past two weeks.

On May 11, the University of Washington’s College of Education announced it would sponsor Teach for America at its teaching college, providing the missing component to the deal that TFA, Inc. struck with the Seattle School District last fall.

Last November, Seattle’s school board approved a (troubling and one-sided) contract to allow TFA, a short-term alternative teacher credentialing program, into Seattle’s hiring pool for the first time. TFA, Inc. also demands a financial and university sponsor in order to brings its program to a new location, and charges school districts an extra $4,000 or more per year for each trainee it hires, in “recruitment, placement and training” fees. (Evidently the millions of dollars from private investors and the $50 million recently granted to TFA, Inc. by the federal government isn’t enough to cover expenses.) Those in the parent ed advocacy community guessed that corporate ed reform sugardaddy Bill Gates would pony up at some point. And he did — his new Washington STEM organization will pay the $4,000 annual fee for the science and math TFAers, which would otherwise be billed to our cash-strapped district. But who would be the university sponsor? We waited for an announcement."

[boppers]

5. OP seems to not know the source, first post says it's Gates?

er... huh?

[madfloridian]

8. No, that is not what the OP says.

You need to read it again. Also at the 2nd link, when I ran out of excerpts, it says TFA tells Seattle they are funded locally.

Who is paying the price to get these TFAers into public schools which have laid off experienced teachers?

I believe some here would rather prove me wrong than actually see the problem. Here is some more from the 2nd link.....WHO LOCALLY is giving the money to the district to pay the TFA recruits??

"Sherry Carr tried to get the answer from Teach for America almost a year ago. She asked three times, in a public meeting. Janis Ortega from TFA took five minutes to answer her other questions. Then she said TFA raises all of its funding locally.

Ortega: "And our funders are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Bezos Foundation, The Raikes Foundation and the Seattle Foundation, to date. We still have a funding gap that we're pursuing to close."

The TFA website shows those four groups, and JP Morgan Chase, have given over a million dollars."


BUT good work there....you perused my post, came up with something that MIGHT be a problem, and you jumped. Good work.

[boppers]

23. So, TFA is funded locally, but the "bounties" on teachers are funded by Gates?

I think the confusion might stem from asking simple questions ("How is XYZ funded?") and expecting simple answers.

It's a bit like asking "Who funds Obama?", a question with desired answers for various people's arguments.

[madfloridian]

24. Whatever.

[boppers]

25. If the desired response is not "correct", repeat the question, and claim the question is unanswered.

Yeah, I know how this works.

It reflects upon the questioner, as well.

[madfloridian]

26. There is no response appropriate or correct to seeing public education destroyed.

I don't play word games about this serious time in our history. This destruction is being done during a Democratic administration.

You simply don't care about the situation. You appear to be more concerned about making me look bad.

Don't worry, doesn't bother me. I am right about this issue. It is dear to my heart. So go ahead with your word games.

[suffragette]

2. Thank you for keeping on this

K&R

[madfloridian]

19. You are welcome.

And I intend to keep on keeping on about it. :)

[mfcorey1]

3. Excellent information! Thanks.

[ibegurpard]

4. kick and rec

[saras]

6. Why? This isn't the tea party, mindless destruction isn't these folks' style.

One part of it is to demoralize existing teachers and encourage them to leave.
This part is working fairly well.

Another part is to break up the system by which the culture of teaching is maintained.
This part is working quite well, though there are strong pockets of resistance and untaken territory.

Another part is to remove progressives from education.
This is rather awkward, as having a progressive orientation on some fundamental level seems to be an essential part of any effective educator. After all, education IS progress, towards intellectual, emotional, and morally further developed functioning. But since reactionaries are such bad disciplinarians as well as bad teachers, their alternative seems to be rank ignorance.

But the TFA recruits simply aren't skilled enough yet to be educating children in different directions. Isn't that odd?

Are they just supposed to be role models of ignorance - a general lowering of standards?
Are they to be replaced with better-indoctrinated trainers as soon as their obvious lack of preparation causes classroom problems?
Are they just selected from all the applicants to NOT have certain values? Or to HAVE others?

WTF is going on here in the big picture?

[madfloridian]

18. I fear the big picture is money and power.

And very little concern for the students.

[1monster]

7. Teach for America is totally unnecessary and a scam. There are a thousand applicants

in my school district for every teaching job advertised.

ONE THOUSAND applicants for every teaching job advertised.

We already have the necessary, much more than the necessary pool of available EXCELLENT teachers to choose from.

They are getting two year contracts while our certified teachers with experience are now only going to be allowed one year contracts.

[madfloridian]

9. AMEN!.."ONE THOUSAND applicants for every teaching job advertised."

Why TFA unless it is to turn teaching into a temporary kind of job which is cheaper than paying a REAL teacher.

Thanks for that observation.

[Blue_Tires]

10. kick

[Eyerish]

11. K&R

[LWolf]

12. Gates. Broad. Duncan. Obama.

The current generals escalating the war on public education. They've demonstrated enthusiasm for nuclear options. They don't give a shit about Geneva conventions. They don't care what or who they destroy along the way.

[Truth2Tell]

13. Thank you for writing about this madflridian! Big K&R

We are in a major battle here in Seattle to try and take back the School Board from the Gates funded "reformers" who bought their way into control of the District last election cycle. Amazingly Seattle School Board races have no contribution limits. Prior to four years ago, no candidate ad ever spent more than $35,000 on a Seattle School Board race. Then along came the current incumbents. Almost immediately upon filing, the "reform" candidates had raked-in $10-$15,000 checks from a handful of wealthy executives and their spouses, including Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and several top COSTCO execs. Over $500k quickly flowed into the races and the community activists, teachers and others who were running in opposition were handily overwhelmed and defeated by a cavalcade of slick propaganda.

The result of the leadership of this new "business" minded "reform" cabal has been a series of public scandals and a collapse of morale across the District. To put it mildly.

Out of city Republican millionaires have purchased the Seattle Public Schools outright. And this in one of the most progressive communities in the nation.

Opponents have now regrouped, but we are outgunned and it's an uphill battle. What we have going for us is that the new Board has screwed the pooch so badly that even the reactionary Seattle Times hasn't been able to ignore it.

[madfloridian]

16. The reformers target certain cities big time.

And they have such money and power that it takes forever for people to realize what just hit them.

[madfloridian]

14. The gift from Congress to TFA....teachers still training can be "highly qualified"

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/congress/a-highly-qualified-gift-from-c.html

"Senators have included in key legislation language that would allow teachers still in training to be considered “highly qualified” so they can meet a standard set in the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Teachers still in training programs are disproportionately concentrated in schools serving low-income students and students of color, the very children who need the very best the teaching profession has to offer. In California alone, nearly a quarter of such teachers work in schools with 98-100 percent of minority students, while some affluent districts have none. Half of California's teachers still in training teach special education.

Allowing non-certified teachers to be considered “highly qualified” would be a gift to programs such as Teach for America, which gives newly graduated college students from elite institutions five weeks of summer training before sending them into low-performing schools. Teach for America participants, who commit to staying in the program for two years, then continue education studies while they are teaching."

[madfloridian]

15. TFA first said they get all their funding locally....school district should be told.

So which is it, really? Do the billionaire funders claimed by TFA have someone locally who pays the 4000 dollar fees? Why not tell the school board?

"Sherry Carr tried to get the answer from Teach for America almost a year ago. She asked three times, in a public meeting. Janis Ortega from TFA took five minutes to answer her other questions. Then she said TFA raises all of its funding locally.

Ortega: "And our funders are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Bezos Foundation, The Raikes Foundation and the Seattle Foundation, to date. We still have a funding gap that we're pursuing to close."

The TFA website shows those four groups, and JP Morgan Chase, have given over a million dollars."

http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=24501

[Festivito]

17. Let me guess, They were given an old school and they used it to BORROW money.

Then, when they default the bank will take that school property along with all our properties and then squeeze the rest of us until they own it all.

[Starry Messenger]

20. k&r

[immoderate]

21. Thanks, MF!

Links go out to my former teaching buddies. -->

:hi:

--imm

[progressoid]

22. WooHoo. Racing to the TOP!

:banghead: