Ask Wendy Kopp (or Ninive Calegari or John Wood)

I attended this event and covered it at NYC education blog GothamSchools.org.  One thing that struck me was the consensus among the speakers that what’s called for is accountability and fewer protections for teachers.  At least one of our readers interprets this as “union-bashing.” There’s an on-going discussion in the blogosphere about how to transform teacher pay while being respectful of teachers who have worked in the schools for decades, and whether it’s wise to give up union protections in an era of test-based accountability.

Teach For America activists say poor schools and bad teachers cause the achievement gap not bad habits or inequality.
Discounting the notion of individual responsibility, they want us to give TFA alumni top jobs in our urban schools, and to transfer kids from neighborhood schools to the charters they operate, so they can eliminate job security for teachers and eradicate any influence we have over school-district policies.
The idea that teachers are opponents rather than advocates of education is a new one in our country. It derives from the time when Ms. Wendy Kopp first started TFA and  decided, from her Princeton perch and without a day in the classroom, that inexperienced teachers were inherently better than experienced ones.
Ms. Kopp’s circle in Washington D.C., Houston, New York and elsewhere  are launching an anti-American Ivy League class war on the very same teachers who serve our nation’s toughest schools.