Teaching For Leis

I'd be willing to bet that Teach For America won't have much trouble recruiting 50 teachers for a tour of duty in this locale:

The Teach for America program may soon be launched in Hawaii, and it could add 50 teachers to public school classrooms this fall.

The program is designed to attract college graduates from other fields to make two-year commitments to teach in areas that are generally rural and disadvantaged.

State education officials need to work out details with the union and the attorney general's office.

But if they can come to an agreement, officials say the Teach of America program could help fill some of the 400 to 500 teaching shortages the state has each fall.

The Teach for America program has attracted an applicant pool that has risen from five thousand in 2001 to 17 thousand last year.

It provides intensive training during the summer before schools tarts so these new teachers are better prepared than most emergency hires.

Teach for America recruits some of the brightest and best students from the country's most prestigious institutions of higher learning.

Yeah, I'm a fan.

It's too bad that our administrators down here in "Imperial" County (Which is the poorest in California.) have never heard of T.F.A. When I tried to bring the program to the attention of one of our administrators, there was no interest whatsoever.

I think that this is probably because the program hires its teachers based upon their qualifications rather than their political connections. This would be a novel concept down here in California's "Imperial" Valley. ------------------------------------See our latest education-related posts right here.