UPDATE: David Green’s #TFA commentary @nytimes + End NJ Tax Subsidies for “Monster” Pearson – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

End NJ Tax Subsidies for High Stakes Testing “Monster” Pearson – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER:

Friend David Green’s #TFA commentary @nytimes comes at a good time

by Chalk Face, PhD

I’m starting to feel as if the TFA brand is getting a tad tarnished. It’s not fooling a lot of people anymore, as is apparent from many of the responses Mr. Greene received. When I spoke at the 92Y last month, I was right after Wendy Kopp. She left immediately after her talk, the prima donna that she apparently must be at this point, Blackberry always going off with the next fundraising call.

We then see efforts from big clothing retailer J.Crew to raise money for the corps by selling T-shirts made God knows where. Why do they need money? Are they some kind of charity or something? But I’m more than sure that hitting up J.Crew fits the profile of TFA recruits perfectly. It’s as if you can actually wear J.Crew while teaching. Not if you’re doing it right.

At our Occupy2.0 event last month, friend Denisha Jones had an excellent idea during her speech, and Mr. Greene suggests as much. Rather than being catapulted right into classroom teaching, why does TFA not become TAFA, or Teachers’ Assistants for America? Get some experience by supporting career educators? In that regard, I would support the organization’s Peace Corps aspirations. 

Imagine it. Rather than replacing teachers, you have a legion of new assistants in 

End NJ Tax Subsidies for High Stakes Testing “Monster” Pearson

by freetoteach

 Pearson, Inc: Bad tax subsidies for bad education policies.

End NJ Tax Subsidies for High Stakes Testing Giant Pearson, Inc.

TUESDAY, May 14TH, 12:00PM

Hoboken River Ferry, 1401 Frank Sinatra Drive, Hoboken NJ

• End corporate welfare and fund our public schools!

• Protest tax subsidy ‘payoffs for layoffs’ to test publishing giant Pearson!

Governor Christie gave Pearson Education, Inc. an $80 million tax break to move offices from Bergen County to Hoboken, even though Pearson is making a killing off its high stakes testing contracts with states like New Jersey and New York. And what did Pearson do? They turned around and moved 650 jobs to New York, which is giving them millions more in additional tax breaks. The British-based multinational also took advantage of a Hurricane Sandy tax deferral to significantly lower its 2012 United States tax bill.

Pearson is one of the private companies that has profited most from the test-based