Huntsville AL...are taxpayers paying $5000 to each TFA recruit to pay off student debts?

[madfloridian]

One professor indicates that might be the case. If there is even a little bit of truth to that, there should be outrage in Huntsville.

They have extended their contract with Teach for America for four years. That means that each TFA recruit will be given $5000 for each of those years, and there seems to be some confusion over how it will be used.

From Geek Palaver, some questions posed by a professor to the school board. Of course he got no real answers. Video included.

Experience Matters

During the Huntsville School Board meeting, Dr. Philip Kovacs, a concerned parent, asked Dr. Wardynski and the board a few direct questions concerning the Teach For America four-year contract that the board approved at the beginning of the month. He, of course, received no answers.

..."1. You’ve claimed there is “overwhelmingly positive research” in support of Teach for America. This is demonstrably false. Why are you making this claim when there are only two, non-peer reviewed reports on TFA, both of which have been discredited by scholars?

..."2. Will you guarantee that TFA members will be equitably distributed across the district and not only placed in Title I schools, which would be in direct violation of the ongoing federal desegregation order re: Hereford v. Huntsville?

Furthermore, will you provide the media with the percentage of black teachers laid off and the percentage of white “new faces” replacing them, or will the media need to use the Freedom of Information Act to determine those figures?

These next two really stuck out for me. I have always said that only public school teachers are held accountable, that education reformers have to prove nothing.

That $5000 per teacher per year should really be sticking point with residents of Huntsville who may be paying those costs. And the fact that fired and laid off teachers are being shoved aside in favor of recruits with 5 weeks training should appall them.

4. Dr. Robinson claims the $5,000 per year is for professional development, but TFA claims the money must be used towards paying off college loans. Who is incorrect on this point? Are my tax dollars going to professional development, or am I paying off other people’s debt because quite frankly, I have plenty of my own.

5. If, in two years, your 1.9 million dollar experiment on Huntsville’s children has not produced “overwhelmingly positive results,” will you hold yourselves accountable and resign?

I don't have an exact answers to the question of what the $5000 will be used for, but I did find this.

Teach for America
Each year, Teach for America selects 2,000 recent college graduates for training to become full-time teachers in urban and rural public schools. These teachers receive a salary, health benefits and insurance similar to that of other beginning teachers. They also qualify to receive forbearance on student loans and an education award of $4,725 for each year of service, which can be used for student loans or toward future education.

College Answer.com

I am not sure what districts are in the practice of paying for the further education of their teachers, though most inservice on the school campus itself is free. I know our district never paid for my courses when I was teaching. So that is really a special treat to have taxpayers pay for that. Is there a full disclosure of what private money pays for TFA and what is not included?

Here is more about it in a WAFF news story:

"Are my tax dollars going to exorbitantly priced professional development, or am I paying off other people's college debt?" Kovacs asked school board members.

Teach for America teachers are hired to teach for two years. In their contract with Huntsville City Schools, they will be paid $5,000 per year, in addition to their salaries. School board members said this covers professional development and recruitment costs.

There are some very snide and arrogant words by the school superintendent, Casey Wardynski. He seems to have a very low opinion of regular everyday traditionally trained teachers. He seems to feel that TFA teachers are superior.

Huntsville City Schools superintendent Casey Wardynski said the decision behind Teach for America recruits is based on their talent level, which compared to other teacher applications, warrants their employment.

"These are very very competitive individuals. The individuals we often hear from that object come from teachers colleges. We're happy to hear from them but my interest is in children and Teach for America has a proven record around the country." Wardynski said.

Professor questions Huntsville City School board over Teach for America contract

No, Mr Wardynski, these teachers usually come from colleges and universities that regular people attend, and they go through far more training than the 5 weeks for TFA recruits.

In addition to the high extra cost of hiring TFA trainees instead of hiring local teachers for free....there is another reason to be cautious.

It simply is not good for the students to be constantly focused on a single test score. Here are three powerful paragraphs from a blogger at Education Week, Anthony Cody:

Enter the classroom of a TFA intern teacher, and you are likely to find a large poster that says "Our Big Goal, 80% mastery." You are likely to find student test scores posted on the wall. TFA coaches began focusing almost entirely on data with the teachers they were supporting. This translated into an intense focus on test preparation. I had a TFA director ask me if I could provide her with all the questions to the District's science benchmark exams, so their teachers could focus their instruction on the right concepts (a request I declined). Clearly, Teach For America had decided that their interns would have the best test scores possible, so they could no longer be faulted for being "ineffective" by that all-important set of indicators.

I had one mentee who was teaching Biology a couple of years ago. Her students were not doing very well on her weekly tests, and she was worried they would likewise do poorly on the state exams in the Spring. Her TFA coach advised her to shift her instruction so that every classroom assignment would resemble a test. Every day for a while, her students got worksheets with multiple choice and short answer questions. Their test scores went up, but they were bored, and after a few months of this, she shifted to a more project-based approach.

So when I say these interns are "ineffective," I am not simply speaking of test scores. I am speaking of a broader range of teaching abilities, many of which take several years of training and experience to develop. The most disturbing thing to me about the dependence of many of our high poverty schools on poorly trained interns is the level of turnover, which means students may get novice teachers year after year, and there may not be that critically valuable reservoir of experienced teachers available at the school to nurture, support and serve as role models for these beginners.

Living in Dialogue

The powers that be in DC of both parties are not listening to teachers any more than they are paying attention to the numerous voices of the Occupy movement.

And we are to accept that and be sure to remember that we need to vote for Democrats in 2012 because Republicans are worse.

And most of us will do that most likely. As a result, nothing will change.

I understand that the power leaders don't find the voices of teachers loud enough to hear, but somehow they seem to be ignoring all of the voices from everywhere.

[leveymg]

1. Looks like $20K in student debt forgiveness each, plus their salaries, to replace career public

educators. It's also a form of federally-funded teachers union-busting.

This is Arnie's program. Which makes it Barack's program. And, they really expect teachers to work hard to re-elect them?

[PATRICK]

2. Even with salary

does this stint qualify as the type of service work that would write off their fed loans after 20 years? Unable to find work this is a very magnetic offering to jobless graduates burdened by debt whatever the details. Are these temp jobs counting in the employment rolls?

[madfloridian]

3. I think the fired, laid-off teachers with experience could use the jobs as well.

And they are far more qualified in nearly every case.

I don't know the answer to your questions, but I do know that they are taking jobs of laid off teachers.....I have no respect for anyone who does that.

[madfloridian]

4. Cody's Education Week blog has Kovacs as a guest writer today.

He makes a lot of good points.

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2011/11/philip_kovacs_takes_on_tfa_in.html

"Over the past two years, my city (Huntsville, AL) laid of over 300 certified teachers, many of them graduates of my program. Then I found out our city had signed a $1.7 million deal for at least 170 TFA members. That figure is not firm, as the contract stipulates "at least" 170 TFAers over the next four years. Recent reports suggested it was $1.9 million.

When I learned that TFA members...They are not teachers, any more than a recent undergraduate with 5 weeks of medical training is a doctor, or a lawyer, or a police officer. (Given the choice between someone with 5 weeks of training in any of those 3, or someone trained via an extensive program, which would you choose?)

...when I learned that TFA members were coming to my city, that they were going to cost the District an additional $5,000 per year more than other new teachers cost, I became very interested in the research supporting the program. I bought and read Learning on Other People's Kids, a book written by a former TFA trainer and a respected scholar. Have you read that book? It is dedicated to TFA members, and it is eye-popping to say the least.

Regarding the research supporting TFA, what I found was, well, nothing. There is no peer-reviewed research that supports the program. "

Excellent article.

I will keep posting about the harm being done to education in the name of profit. I realize it is most likely fruitless and it makes my posts a target. So be it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. K 'N R

[Angry Dragon]

6. Follow the money

[madfloridian]

7. Yep, taxpayers paying private companies for recruits to pay off loans.

That's pretty bad. :hi:

[madfloridian]

8. At least 4 here think this is a good use of public money....

more I think but 4 at least. This is a pretty obviously ugly thing to do to teachers and taxpayers, so I have to think there is an agenda at play when the recs keep on going down, down.

And that's ok, just surprising.

Our taxes paying for those who attended elite colleges to pay off their debts. :shrug: Depends on one's POV...

[madfloridian]

9. Huntsville is noticing. Editorial about the true reality of TFA's "shining promises."

http://blog.al.com/times-views/2011/11/teach_for_america_a_shining_pr.html

"Huntsville City Schools will be fortunate if its TFA teachers produce results anything like the teachers, parents and volunteers at Lincoln Elementary School. Their disadvantaged students excelled far beyond educational expectations.

But the school board closed Lincoln in the name of saving money because it was old and had too many empty desks. In doing so, the board killed an effort that didn't cost anything more than the commitment of people who believed they could make a difference. And it didn't take an extra $10,000 a teacher."


The commitment of people who believed they could make a difference....didn't cost all that extra money. They closed the school anyway.

[midnight]

10. Education continues to take a back seat to the companies

trying to make a buck. The process will go more quickly if they can remove the educators who know how to teach first....

[madfloridian]

11. And it's an easy process when no one cares what is happening...

at least not enough to fight back about it.

[Starry Messenger]

12. k&r

[madfloridian]

13. Thanks...I see that it finally went from minus zero

overnight. I can't imagine why in the world enough would approve of paying the student debt of TFAers to get a post to minus zero recs, or maybe...it's just an automatic thing.

[xchrom]

14. Recommend

[slipslidingaway]

15. knr nt

[eppur_se_muova]

16. Lots of confusing/misleading things here -- I question the choice of the word "awards" ...

This student loan forgiveness program is provided by the Federal Government and it requires the student to fulfill a certain criteria. Once that criterion is satisfied a partial loan amount or the entire loan amount may be waived for the student. However, the rules for qualifying for this student loan forgiveness program are considered to be quite stringent. This program requires the student to undertake an AmeriCorps work for a year and then the money received for that work may be used to pay for the loan. Apart from these students who are associated with the Perkins loan or the Stafford Loan can also get 70% forgiveness of their loan. Some of the Vista members are also entitled to get a repayment if they serve 1700 hours as a volunteer. They can get up to $4 725 eliminated from their original loan.

http://student-loan-forgiveness.org/

Notice that this is provided through the Federal student loan programs, and is not specific to TFA:

National Defense Education Act
If you become a full-time teacher in an elementary or secondary school that serves students from low income families you could have a portion of your Federal Perkins Loans forgiven. Contact your school district's administration to see which schools qualify under this program.

http://www.collegeanswer.com/paying/content/pay_loan_forgive.jsp

It reads to me that TFA, or perhaps the superintendent, Wardynski, is trying to claim the $5000 (which I understood to be a flat fee, paid to TFA) is used to pay the TFA "teachers" $4725 towards their student loans, whereas the above suggests this $4725 comes from Federal (taxpayer) money -- as a partial forgiveness of student loan debt, not as a payment which can be spent in any other way.

The "forbearance" being touted as a reward for TFA participants is simply a delay in required repayments -- interest continues to accumulate -- and is available for most student loans. Many times I have requested a forbearance on other grounds (there are several others), and one of the options given on the form is that of being a teacher in an underpriviliged school. Again, not specific to TFA. See http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/difficulty.jsp

It reads to me that TFA is trying to take credit for providing money that is actually provided by taxpayers, while charging a huge fee to give TFA participants a deal no better than they could have gotten by other means, while helping to bust teaching unions. Cynical exploitation of others' good intentions is what the right wing does best.

[eppur_se_muova]

17. We're paying $5000 **per year** (to TFA) FOR each recruit, and $4725 TO each recruit.

At least that's the way it looks to me.

[madfloridian]

18. I had previously looked up a lot of articles about the loan forgiveness.

And I am still thoroughly confused as to just how it works.

Perhaps the professor is rounding up the 5000 from the 4700. Just a thought. Or you could be right, they could be getting both.

"One other point that concerns me about Teach for America has to do with the “servants’ heart” issue. I know that TFA recruits teachers who have gone to Ivy League Schools and that these TFA teachers typically go out into the low-income schools to teach for two years, and I also know that TFA teachers receive the full salary and benefits paid by their school districts. However, these TFA teachers have the added bonus of loan forbearance on their college loans (temporarily postponed or reduced). With Harvard (and other Ivy League schools) now costing upwards of $200,000 for four years, I can see why TFA teachers might elect to go into the program, particularly with the downturn of the economy.

What I want is for the TFA program to be honest with the public and to admit that most TFA teachers are using the program to help them to cope with their heavy college loans, particularly now that those high-paying jobs for college graduates are becoming harder to find.

I also know that TFA proudly reports that 39% of their classroom teachers stay in the classroom after their two-year stint, but that figure is based upon one lone study done in 2000 – 2002; much has happened in our country since that study was performed."

Here is another link:

http://allthingsedu.blogspot.com/2011/05/teach-for-america-from-service-group-to.html

"TFA makes it possible for some corps members to put off pursuing jobs in corporate law and finance until after they have “made a difference” for two years; perhaps at that point corps members and their peers have more distance from undergrad idealism. Perhaps to ease the transition to jobs in the private sector, financial institutions, such as Goldman Sachs, have established partnerships with TFA, to provide summer internships. Furthermore, TFA has partnerships with hundreds of graduate schools which offer TFA alumni benefits such as two-year deferrals, fellowship, course credits, and waived application fees. With education reform having become the new cause célèbre among hedge fund managers, Oprah, national journalists, and Hollywood types such as Davis Guggenheim, I can’t see TFA losing popularity any time soon. Many TFA applicants should indeed be applauded for their nobility, but I’m not so sure that is the beginning and end of all of their motivations. Is twenty-five percent of Harvard University’s graduating class so purely well-intentioned?"

[eppur_se_muova]

20. Even if the TFA recruits are "noble servants", it sounds to me like they're being used.

I don't doubt that some, or even many, have good intentions. But remember the infernal pavement. How important are the earnest intentions of the pawns in a war waged by higher echelons for their own ends? As long as recruits remain useful tools in the corporatocracy's effort to take over public education, they will get their handful of grain as reward.

[madfloridian]

19. I think the recruitment fee is separate.

I believe it runs about 2000 dollars. I may be wrong on that.

[saras]

21. TFA recruits are NOT trained teachers - they do NOT have experience OR education

In the vast majority of cases, they're typical, average, that is, second-rate, students - they're nearly all dumb enough to believe that the indoctrination they're trained to pass on is actually education. If you're smart enough to see through that, TFA is not for you.

And it's important that kids get this message - that any old idiot trained by the corporate overlords is OBVIOUSLY superior to an educator who understands human development.

[sulphurdunn]

22. Wardynski

is Broad Superintendents Academy graduate, so pimping for TFA is no surprise. The $5000 in professional development cost explanation for a single teacher is both a hoot and complete Bull Shit. :rofl:

[madfloridian]

23. Yep, and Broad superintendents are punitive toward regular teachers.

They use the worst tactics and are just plain public school teacher haters. I saw him on a video defending TFA, and he was so unbelievably arrogant.

[LWolf]

24. Taxpayers did not pay off my student loans. I paid them myself.

Of course, I'm not a TFAer; just a real teacher.