Looks like Wall Street’s loss continues to be Teach for America’s gain. The national corps that puts high-achieving recent college graduates into underserved schools has broken yet another record in 2009 with 35,000 applications for 3,800 to 4,000 spots nationwide. That’s up 42% from last year, which also was a record-breaking year. More than 11% of all seniors at Ivy League colleges sent in applications — another record for the organization. In Louisiana, 9.5% of Tulane University graduating seniors applied, as well as 2% of the senior class at LSU.
Teach for America hopes to place a record 600-plus teachers in Louisiana this fall. Baton Rouge could get as many as 100 new educators, up from the usual 35 to 40, bringing its total to about 140. New Orleans hopes to bring in 250 new teachers, raising its total to about 500, up from 120 pre-Hurricane Katrina. “We’re getting a lot of very qualified people who never would have thought about it before,” says Michael Tipton, executive director of Teach for America in South Louisiana. “The economy is slowing down, and they’re thinking maybe it’s time to do something service-related instead of hitting the job market. The top companies aren’t recruiting as much, but Teach for America is very aggressively recruiting.”
Look for the organization to seek a $500,000 increase in funding from the Louisiana Legislature this session as well. Teach for America now gets $1 million in state funding; the remaining 80% of its budget is financed through donations.—Penny Font
