This letter is a response to a column by Matt Farmer that appeared in the Feb. 3 edition of The Post under the headline “Teach For America not best option for future educators.” You can read that column online here.
I am a Bobcat, Teach For America alum and current teacher. I am sure inundation with TFA emails can be upsetting, however, many of your loaded statements need to be clarified. To give you some background, I joined TFA Chicago, where I taught in a charter school for four years. I currently teach for a public school. I have been in education now for seven years and I do consider myself a “lifer.”
In your article, you are misleading many readers with your view of the educational climate within Chicago. Yes, many corps members are hired in charter schools. Chicago is an extremely divided city in the education its students are receiving. There are massive problems within the state and city level. TFA is trying to place high-performing adults in challenging classrooms where they work to push their students to achieve excellence. In 2006, the majority of Chicago corps members were placed in public schools. The increase is relative to the change we see within the city and where openings are made.
Placement within charter schools is mainly because of hiring timelines. Charter schools start hiring for the upcoming school year in January. This makes placement a lot easier for the TFA staff. Chicago Public Schools wait until summer.
We need to also clarify what charter schools are. They are still public schools. They receive 80 percent of the funding that public schools get, and then they are free to raise money to supplement their budget. However, many, including the school I worked at, only used the 80 percent funding. They are still at 403(b). Charter schools have many different missions, however. In general, they are allowed to make their own choices on things that public schools usually cannot: hours, curriculum, discipline, code of conduct, union and at-will employees.
TFA does not create the charter schools in Chicago. Chicago knows that they have trouble in education, and the fix has currently been an idea of giving choice to families through charters. By no means is there a “catch-all” fix to the education problems within our city. However, your article is misguided in blaming TFA for the perpetuation of charters. Within the charter I worked in, only one other teacher, out of a staff of 30, was currently a corps member of TFA.
TFA places in approximately 45 regions throughout the country, many where there aren’t any charter schools.
May it be charters, TFA, contract schools or public schools, education is in trouble. We need to keep this conversation going to ensure that one day all students will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.
Tracy Griffin is a graduate of Ohio University.
