DFL lawmakers pull Teach for America funding bill despite ongoing teacher shortage

Sen. Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis, this week withdrew a bill (SF4096/HF3832) that would have appropriated $1 million toward Teach for America Twin Cities “to address the challenge of recruiting, training, and retaining teachers in the state.”

At the start of the 2023-2024 school year, there were hundreds of vacant teaching positions in the Twin Cities, along with hundreds more in greater Minnesota.

Teach for America is an alternative teacher certification program that places recent college graduates in high-poverty public schools on two-year commitments. 

The program has come under criticism for this approach, with detractors pointing out that retention rates after the two-year commitment are much lower than for regular teachers, which can create a revolving door of inexperience in schools with the greatest needs. That’s drawn accusations that the organization is effectively a resume-padding fellowship for affluent Ivy League students.

Public school advocates are also skeptical of the organization’s ties with the charter school movement.

Fateh withdrew the bill after hearing from critics of the program, including members of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. 

“This bill was brought to my office, and in that meeting, the program sounded like a worthy one to support,” Fateh said. “I didn’t do my homework on the background of TFA, and I own that.” He added he now feels TFA is not a solution to school staffing and retention problems.

Erin Bradley, vice president for communications and external affairs at Teach for America, said the organization is “disappointed that the bill was pulled before members of the community had an opportunity to learn more about it through the public hearing that was scheduled for today.”

She added that the bill “was designed to build stronger pathways into education careers for aspiring teachers from the local community while reducing financial barriers that are making it difficult for teachers of color and educators from Native and Indigenous and low-income backgrounds” to enter the profession. 

Funds would also have gone toward professional development for existing teachers, as well as summer programs and tutoring opportunities for local students.

Teach for America has been exhaustively studied by education policy researchers over the years, and that research paints a consistent picture: students taught by TFA teachers perform modestly better on several educational outcomes than those taught by similarly situated traditional teachers. 

And while turnover among TFA teachers is higher than for regular teachers, the research suggests that students and schools still benefit, on net, from participating in TFA even after the costs of that turnover have been accounted for.

A July 2023 RAND Corp. evaluation of the TFA Indianapolis program, for instance, found that “TFA Indy teachers were, on average, more effective at increasing student achievement than non-TFA teachers.” The effects were greatest in schools with multiple TFA teachers, and those benefits outweighed the costs of those teachers’ higher rates of turnover.

Similarly, a January 2023 paper by researchers with the American Institutes for Research and the Brookings Institution found that “students taught by TFA math teachers go on to have higher grades in math courses in the following year and are less likely to miss school due to being absent or suspended,” suggesting that TFA teachers are able to influence the trajectories of students after they’ve left their classrooms.

Another recent paper by a Brown University researcher found that the five-year retention rate for TFA teachers in New York City (25%) was lower than that for other teachers (43%). But “the TFA performance advantage is large enough to offset turnover costs,” and “the net effect of TFA hiring on student achievement is positive in the short and long run.”

At the start of this school year “nine out of ten Minnesota school districts reported that they were significantly impacted by teacher shortages,” Bradley said. “Local students, their families, and communities deserve better.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that TFA teachers don’t need to be licensed or certified. TFA teachers in Minnesota must be licensed prior to hiring.