Bill Gates funding Teach for America in Seattle

[Hannah Bell]

In January of 2011, Bill Gates gave Teach for America $2.5 million to open an office in Seattle. He also gave University of Washington STEM $10 million on the condition it "support" Teach for America (TFA) there. Seattle doesn't have a failing school system, and parents are furious because they don't want amateurs teaching their children.

Great Schools for America (GSA) and Parents Across America (PAA), two recently formed organizations, intend to challenge TFA for teaching jobs. GSA is a cash-strapped, all volunteer, nonprofit organization fighting for education equity. We can't even imagine having one-tenth of $2.5 million to open an office. We also can't imagine what TFA does with the hundreds of millions of dollars it collects from donors and taxpayers. We do know that not one cent of TFA money reaches the classroom in the form of equipment, supplies, programs, or projects for kids. We are inviting the Daily Kos Community and Save Our Schools to support us in ensuring that all children have access to quality, credentialed teachers and that education dollars be spent on children....Below is a letter sent from Great Schools for America to the Seattle Board. (A similar letter is being sent to Boards of Education in each of the placement regions where TFA operates.)

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To: Members of the Seattle Public Schools Board of Education From: Officer, Great Schools for America Re: The hiring of Teach for America recruits instead of certified teachers:

We have the resumes of 22,982 certified teachers from Washington state alone (nearly 800,000 nationwide) who want the jobs you are offering Teach for America recruits. The question now becomes, "Do Seattle's children deserve professional teachers?"

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=2163§ion=Article

[LAGC]

1. Some of these out-spoken billionaries need to just shut the fuck up and quit waving their money...

...around.

Or one of these days one of the "lowly rabble" is going to rise up and cause violence to one of these pricks.

They should know better and just leave well enough alone. They got uber-wealthy off of the rest of us, isn't that enough? Do they really feel the need to stomp us into the ground with their boot and grind it in as well?

[Initech]

2. Agreed. They've already entered the abyss, why drag us along with it?