by Elizabeth K. Jeffers
“In the last six or seven years, BESE has awarded over $13 million to Teach For America to supply according to the contracts approximately 5,000 teachers,” stated BESE board candidate, Lee Barrios, at a recent BESE meeting in response to Dr. Miranti’s motion to approve a $1 million contract with TFA for 500 TFA teachers for the upcoming 2015-2016 school year.
White and Dobard signed contracts for a total of $1.4 million with Teach for America to recruit and place teachers in the Recovery School District during the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years. Over the past seven years, the Louisiana Department of Education has entered into more than $2.7 million in contracts with TFA to specifically recruit, hire and place TFA corps members in the RSD. RSD’s charter management organizations, unlike direct run OPSB schools, are likely to hire TFA teachers.
According to the Rex foundation’s website, Pro Bono Publico Foundation proclaimed: “Teach for America has been essential to the success of the charter school movement. TFA’s 340 corps members and 860 alums now reach one in five students in the New Orleans Delta Region.”
