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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

“Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Excellent!” | EduShyster

“Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Excellent!” | EduShyster:


“Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Excellent!”

Teach for America has raised nearly $1 billion in the last five years to build a pipeline of excellence into the education rephorm movement.
“Don’t hate me because I’m excellent…”

Today’s $1 billion question: how much excellence does $1 billion buy? The answer is muchos, muchosexcellence—if you happen to be Teach for America. $1 billion is roughly the amount that TFA has managed to raise in the past five years, earning it a spot on Forbes list of the 200 largest US charities. Even in today’s union-stifle climate of non-innovation, that’s a lot of excellence. A little perspective: $1 billion is enough to pay every one of TFA’s 28,000 alumni a bonus of $35,000, just for being outstanding. It’s even enough to pay each of TFA’s 16 officers six figure salaries—and still have a cool $300 million left over for additional excellence.

But all this crass and inappropriate talk about money leads to an even more crass and inappropriate question: