California Democrat fails to ban Teach for America — but says the fight isn’t over
A proposal to ban organizations like Teach for America from sending young educators to low-income schools in California failed on Thursday.
Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens, introduced Assembly Bill 221 in 2019 to ban Teach for America educators from working in charter and traditional public schools if at least 40 percent of the students were from low-income families.
Garcia expanded the legislation to include all third-party organizations that don’t require recruited teachers to commit to at least five years in low-income schools. But she postponed an Assembly floor vote on AB 221 last May after it appeared not to have enough votes.
It faced a Jan. 31 deadline to pass the Assembly. Garcia pulled it again, effectively killing AB 221 for the year.
“We need to have qualified teachers in our schools,” Garcia said. “Part of the situation here is not just prioritizing the students but to stop trivializing teaching as a career.”
Teach for America is an alternative teacher recruitment organization that places educators in low-income schools in cities throughout the country for two years. The “corps members” are often not credentialed before they enter the program, but go through a summer training program called “institute” that helps prepare them for the classroom and their subject area.
Garcia, a former public school math teacher, argued that organizations like Teach for America use vulnerable students of color and their schools as “training grounds,” leading to an under-prepared workforce that exacerbates achievement gaps.
The average California teacher salary for the 2017-2018 school year was $80,680, according to the Department of Education, and some school districts have reported that they’re struggling to recruit teachers because of the state’s high cost of living.
Organizations like Teach for America can serve as a way to get teachers in classrooms. Districts enter into contracts with the nonprofit and recruit teachers to help fill open positions.
“We are grateful for the widespread support from the California legislature for Teach For America and programs like ours that provide students with diverse, passionate, and qualified new teachers, and give local school districts a source of talented teachers to hire,” TFA said in a statement. “As part of a coalition of teachers, parents, local school leaders, and more than 60 education and equity organizations across the state who believed AB 221 would be bad for schools and students, we are pleased that the Legislature did not move this bill forward.”
Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, a Rocklin Republican and Teach for America alumnus, also applauded AB 221’s failure.
“I’m glad the Assembly has once again rejected this effort to remove a group of diverse, high-performing young teachers from California’s most underserved schools,” he said in a Thursday statement. “It remains astonishing that such a twisted idea would even be proposed, much less pass the Education Committee.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated $900 million to train and recruit new teachers in his January budget proposal. More than a third — $350 million — was set aside for competitive grants to fund professional development.
Nearly $200 million would support getting more teachers in the classroom and another $100 million in $20,000 stipends would be awarded to educators who’ve already worked at least four years in “high-priority” schools.
Garcia said in a statement that she would reintroduce similar legislation by a Feb. 21 cut off.
“If we’re saying hurry up, let’s invest $900 million and turn around the ship quickly, then why are we allowing under-qualified teachers to stay in the classroom,” Garcia said. “If my argument wasn’t so true, why would he be putting (that money) into the budegt like this?”
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 1:25 PM with the headline "California Democrat fails to ban Teach for America — but says the fight isn’t over."