Huffman vs. Straw Man
Kevin Huffman is one of two TFA alumni who is currently a state education commissioner. I was a 1991 Houston corps member and Kevin was one in 1992 so I have known him, at least informally, for over twenty years. I interacted with him from time to time when he was a TFA vice president of public affairs for several years.
A few days ago I saw a tweet from TFA co-CEO Matt Kramer which was also retweeted by the other co-CEO Elisa Villaueva-Beard about an important op-ed written by Huffman defending a new merit pay scheme in Tennessee.
Huffman was responding to a quote from the Tennessee teachers’ union president Keith Williams in an article in a local paper the week before. Just so I’m not accused of taking anything out of context, here is Huffman’s piece in its entirety:On May 8, during Teacher Appreciation Week, the Tennessee Department of Education announced a new program to provide $7,000 signing bonuses and $5,000 retention bonuses for high-performing teachers willing to teach in “Priority Schools” — the schools performing at the bottom of the state in academic outcomes. Most of these schools — 69 out of 83 — are in Memphis.The money, which in the past would have been spent on consultants, vendors or administrators, represents a historic effort to help struggling schools turn around student performance by inves