Teach For America — except for California

Teach For America — except for California

Teach For America — except for California

SACRAMENTO — Backed by powerful teachers unions, Democrats are pushing to ban Teach For America from California amid a wave of teacher’s strikes and a heated debate over charter schools in the nation’s most populous state.

The push comes as education policy becomes an increasing point of tension, putting the national nonprofit and its recruits — promising college grads eager to teach in poor communities — in the crosshairs of the state's supermajority Democratic legislature.

Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), a Democrat in the state Assembly pushing legislation to ban the nearly 30-year-old organization in the state, says Teach For America’s goal of closing the achievement gap in public education actually hurts the poor and minority students it seeks to serve.

Teach For America fast-tracks teacher training for ambitious young people straight out of college and places them in the country’s most struggling school districts, committing them to a two-year teaching stint.

“Our most vulnerable students are getting our least trained teachers. If they’re good enough for poor, low-income schools, why aren’t they good enough for the Beverly Hillses of the world?” Garcia told POLITICO. “Why do low-income schools have to be the guinea pigs?”

It doesn’t help that during a recent teacher strike in Oakland — which followed a teacher walkout in Los Angeles and garnered support from national figures ranging from NBA star Stephen Curry to Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) —Teach For America seemed to encourage its California members to cross picket lines, prompting a backlash from its alumni.

It’s far from the first time Teach For America, which has enjoyed support on Capitol Hill, has faced resistance. In 2016, San Francisco school board members voted down what would have been a routine approval of TFA teachers, citing concerns similar to Garcia’s. In 2013, a group of Teach for America alumni CONTINUE READING:  Teach For America — except for California