The performance that matters most to exacting backers amounts to this: For generations, the people who went into teaching compared unflatteringly with those who went into business, law, and medicine. TFA is helping correct that disparity. The woes of public education were considered, basically, unsolvable. TFA is helping show why we should raise our expectations.
So, if I follow him: Because Teach for America brings more and more high quality college graduates into the teaching fold (those would-be successful businessmen, lawyers, and doctors) "exacting backers" begin to see education as a problem finally worth throwing money at.
And they just so happen to throw it TFA's way. They give to TFA not because the organization has shown progress towards its avowed aims of "closing the achievement gap" nor because it has conclusively demonstrated that it's teachers perform better than others (at best, it is a wash), but because those who fill the ranks of TFA are just more impressive "people" than those who enter the education field through other routes (all those low status women!). Wow, that is one cynical reason to give money. And while I do not think Caplan actually has such an unsavory take on the situation (the concluding sentence of the above quote suggests as much), his garbled and disjointed piece left me feeling this was the conclusion one must draw.
So, what does this say about TFA and its hopes for "closing the achievement gap" by ensuring that all children "one day" have access to a "quality" education? A lot. Teach for America's success as a fund-raising juggernaut is a product of the same world view that empowers an oligarchy of the rich and white at the expense of the poor and minority. Furthermore, as TFAs growth is predicated on the robust support of a financial elite, one can't but wonder how truly invested the institution as a whole can become in breaking down an "achievement gap" that plays a crucial role in maintaining the wealth and privilege of the same financial and corporate bodies who fund the organization. To break down the achievement gap is part and parcel with breaking down the class system in this country, and no corporate entity is interested in that.
Suffice it to say, something tells me the financial officers of Wachovia (having just given 100,000$ to TFA Baltimore) might cancel payment on their donation check if it meant that tomorrow they awoke to a population of the poor and Black of Baltimore City--having finally received an education worthy of a doctor or lawyer (or TFA recruit)--demanding the respect and consideration so long reserved for the doctors and lawyers and business people of our society. "What do you mean you are tired of being fleeced by the bank fees which make us rich at your--the working class and poor--expense?" Ha.
I'm done rambling for today. And don't get me wrong: TFA does put warm bodies in classrooms that often would lack them. And by and large, the TFAers are pretty dynamic, hard working warm bodies (If, as a TFAer, I don't say so myself). There is good in this. But, do not confuse this plugging-of-holes in a system which generates the achievement gap as a substantial step toward "fixing" it. After all, you can not fix what ain't broke: Our public schools--in service of our social and economic order--do a great job of helping keep poor people poor and they always have. If TFA hopes to change this it would have to take on a class system that extends beyond the school house doors. And to do this, as I have already suggested, would mean confronting the very interests who fund their organization. It would mean a good long look in the mirror and an honest reckoning, "At the end of the day, who are we really for?"
And they just so happen to throw it TFA's way. They give to TFA not because the organization has shown progress towards its avowed aims of "closing the achievement gap" nor because it has conclusively demonstrated that it's teachers perform better than others (at best, it is a wash), but because those who fill the ranks of TFA are just more impressive "people" than those who enter the education field through other routes (all those low status women!). Wow, that is one cynical reason to give money. And while I do not think Caplan actually has such an unsavory take on the situation (the concluding sentence of the above quote suggests as much), his garbled and disjointed piece left me feeling this was the conclusion one must draw.
So, what does this say about TFA and its hopes for "closing the achievement gap" by ensuring that all children "one day" have access to a "quality" education? A lot. Teach for America's success as a fund-raising juggernaut is a product of the same world view that empowers an oligarchy of the rich and white at the expense of the poor and minority. Furthermore, as TFAs growth is predicated on the robust support of a financial elite, one can't but wonder how truly invested the institution as a whole can become in breaking down an "achievement gap" that plays a crucial role in maintaining the wealth and privilege of the same financial and corporate bodies who fund the organization. To break down the achievement gap is part and parcel with breaking down the class system in this country, and no corporate entity is interested in that.
Suffice it to say, something tells me the financial officers of Wachovia (having just given 100,000$ to TFA Baltimore) might cancel payment on their donation check if it meant that tomorrow they awoke to a population of the poor and Black of Baltimore City--having finally received an education worthy of a doctor or lawyer (or TFA recruit)--demanding the respect and consideration so long reserved for the doctors and lawyers and business people of our society. "What do you mean you are tired of being fleeced by the bank fees which make us rich at your--the working class and poor--expense?" Ha.
I'm done rambling for today. And don't get me wrong: TFA does put warm bodies in classrooms that often would lack them. And by and large, the TFAers are pretty dynamic, hard working warm bodies (If, as a TFAer, I don't say so myself). There is good in this. But, do not confuse this plugging-of-holes in a system which generates the achievement gap as a substantial step toward "fixing" it. After all, you can not fix what ain't broke: Our public schools--in service of our social and economic order--do a great job of helping keep poor people poor and they always have. If TFA hopes to change this it would have to take on a class system that extends beyond the school house doors. And to do this, as I have already suggested, would mean confronting the very interests who fund their organization. It would mean a good long look in the mirror and an honest reckoning, "At the end of the day, who are we really for?"
1 comment:
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