As mentioned before, TFA was originally set up as a way to provide alternatively-trained teaching candidates in school districts that had shortages; i.e., inner-city schools primarily.
No such need exists today for alternatively certified teachers. There are no shortages anywhere in the country but instead there are massive gluts of unemployed, fully-trained teachers. Newly minted and traditionally-trained teachers are competing in an increasingly tough market with RIF'd experienced teachers, experienced teachers who relocated to other areas in search of jobs, teachers who have spent years subbing at poverty pay in some hope they will be "noticed" by some idiot administrator and be given a chance for a regular job, wrongfully fired teachers, and teachers who are relatives of current staff members who most likely get the few jobs available. Why in the hell should even MORE teachers, let alone pseudo-teachers, be flooding the market?
The answer, of course, is money. TFAs "serve" two or three years if they can stand it at bottom-of-the-barrel pay, and they never get vested in pensions. This helps undercut morale for professional staff, who are increasingly pressured to get out to make room for the newbies, who in turn will never be vested in retirement. If the vets are not bought out, they are forced out or fired on bogus charges, like yours truly. Unlike other occupations where people get fired, being a fired teacher is catastrophic, especially if the teacher is over 50.
It's all about saving money on pensions, and it is fucking cynical to screw over kids to save money.
Meanwhile, the kids in at-risk schools, who tend to be minorities, get screwed out of qualified staff. Of course it should be absolutely illegal to hire unqualified teachers under civil rights laws.
From the piece:
As several commenters at HuffPo pointed out, the assertion that TFA teachers are better than either new teachers or veteran teachers doesn’t really pass muster at ground level either. Why aren’t parents in the "leafy suburban" school districts crying out for those awesome TFA teachers? Knowing that this is anecdotal evidence, and so considering it as such, I can’t help but point out that new teachers in my school, with all the traditionally mandated training, student teaching, and for the most part Master’s Degrees and considerable other relevant experience, take a pounding in their first few years. One of the main reasons is precisely that they are new, and this job is really hard, and getting a degree and licensure is just the beginning of learning how to do it. And kids and parents know it.
It is extremely difficult work. You are on a constant treadmill as a teacher. You NEED the summers off to decompress because it takes a toll. You become sick all the time, especially if you teach elementary level, and you get bitched at by administrators who think you should come to school no matter how terrible a shape you are in. After all, districts, as I learned, don't have to abide by FMLA or ADA. If you teach elementary, you spend hours and hours preparing lessons; if you teach secondary level, you spend hours and hours grading papers because the paper work is much greater in the upper grades; if you teach special ed, you are buried under both mountains of paperwork AND preparation to teach kids "individually" according to their IEPs. Worst of all are the supervisors, called principals or administrators in education. Insanity and idiocy seem to be the requirements these days for these nitwits or tyrants without a clue instead of them having been master teachers nearing the ends of their careers.
No newbie is EVER going to be as good as a veteran teacher. It is insane to believe otherwise.
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