Monday, May 19, 2014

Should Labor Historians Encourage A Boycott of Teach for America?

   

In the last few years, Teach for America has gone out of its way to send its Corps members into cities which have fired large numbers of veteran union teachers- among them Chicago, Newark and Washington DC. Basically, the organization has become a source of replacement labor 
for cities seeking to close schools, eliminate or weaken teacher tenure, and undermine the power of teachers unions. This role forTFA seems to have coincided with the increasing influence the Walton Foundation, which is now TFA's largest single source of funding, has had on Teach for America leadership.

Do you think there would be any support among labor historians for a petition or some sort of national action to get faculty to refuse to allow TFA to recruit in their classes, and students to refuse to join it?If so, let me know if you would be willing to work with me on such aaninitiative

In the meantime, here is a short video I just did to take the cover off the damage TFA has been doing in inner city communities

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PREZXh4coIo&feature=youtu.beje

Feel free to circulate it widely

All the Best

Mark

Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Fordham University
Co-Founder, Badass Teachers Association