Last Tuesday the new director of TFA Jax, Nancy McScabteacher, or something gave a TFA presentation to the board.
Now the board should have some legitimate concerns about filling all of the vacant positions especially in some of our neediest schools. The problem here is since TFA does the exact opposite of what we know to be best for those children, Teach for America is a solution worse than the problem.
Furthermore can we just put to bed that TFA isn’t here to replace more expensive veteran teachers, just look at what happened in Jefferson county.
From the Tallahassee Democrat,
Half of Jefferson County Schools’ teachers will not return next year as a charter school company takes over the struggling district.
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2017/05/24/half-jefferson-county-teachers-lose-jobs/102094174/?fbclid=IwAR21VeMAvJ1sPieTp-K8E9AzXN_WWYH3kHdTslelUcVEWMYj-29q3SYEHt8
Gosh, who is going to replace all those teachers? Well if you guessed Teach for America you guessed right.
From TFA Jax,
Wow, Willie is downright giddy to see his novices with six weeks of training replace veteran teachers.
Friends charters staffed by TFA is a vision that Gary Chartrand, Mayor Curry and others have too and if the district invites them back it’s like having the fox guard the hen house, and if you don’t think that could ever happen, well friends just look at Jefferson county. Oh and did I mention it’s bad for kids too?
Last year the district told TFA if any of their corp members wanted to apply like anyone else can then that was fine and 18 did so. That’s okay, but to reenter into a partnership with them would tell us all that the district isn’t really serious about taking care of our children, especially the most vulnerable.