Connections Between Teach for America and Parent Trigger
A new fantasy film is on the horizon pushing "legitimate" education reform: Won't Back Down.Activist Leonie Haimson recently published a helpful list of FAQs on this film to get the reader started. But I'm going to take a closer look at the troubling connections between the film and the much-admired organization Teach for America (TFA).
TFA is ubiquitous. Everyone and their brother falls over each other to hand them money. In fact, The Walton Foundation (aka Wal-Mart) provided TFA with a hefty grant of $16.6 million in just 2010 alone. Of all the large philanthro-capital organizations investing in education, Walton is perhaps the most conservative in its agenda. You can track its influence in all of the major market-driven reform canards: choice, high-stakes testing, vouchers, union busting, and the aforementioned parent trigger.
A recent benefit concert called "Teachers Rock" was co-sponsored by Wal-Mart, in addition to Walden Media, the group that brought us Waiting for Superman and now Won't Back Down. A major beneficiary of this event was TFA. Along with grant awards, TFA is apparently taking