However, TFA has begun placing teachers not in positions lacking qualified candidates, but in slots previously held by veteran teachers—that is, in districts using layoffs to ease budget problems. The practice of laying off experienced teachers and replacing them with inexperienced TFA teachers—or of "laying off people to accommodate Teach For America"—has been reported in Boston, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Chicago, Dallas, and Washington, D.C., among other cities. (8) freshbagels: This exact situation occurred in New Orleans, where I am serving. After Katrina, the legislature summarily fired nearly the entire (90%+) teaching workforce after they closed the district, citing the lack of student presence as the driving factor. This teaching staff - nearly entirely black, native, unionized, and very experienced - were generally not re-hired by the charter schools that replaced the traditional districts, and many of them moved away. We therefore had wholesale replacement of experienced teachers, who were fired for budget reasons, with cheaper replacements like TFA, TeachNOLA, etc.
In fact, an analysis of teacher shortage data across the U.S. tentatively confirms that TFA placements have been moving outside the original targeted high-need districts. Since 1990, the U.S. Department of Education has produced a nationwide listing of teacher shortage areas, based on data submitted by state educational agencies. (9)
All of the states where TFA teachers are placed report teacher shortages by subject area, but a closer look at more detailed geographic data where it is available undermines the initial impression that TFA is working primarily with districts experiencing staffing problems. In the only two states that list shortages by geographic area, Arizona and South Dakota, TFA placements are primarily outside high-need areas. In Arizona, while 13 of 15 counties report shortages, the vast majority of TFA teachers in are placed in one of only two counties that do not report teacher shortages—Maricopa County, which includes the Phoenix metropolitan area. In South Dakota, where TFA has five sites, only one (Todd County School District) is identified as a geographic teacher shortage area. (10)
TFA supporters proffer that TFA is not only about sending teachers to schools facing staffing shortages, but also about improving the teacher labor supply and shaping individuals who will care about education in their future jobs on Wall Street, in Washington, or elsewhere outside the classroom. Whatever the rationale, there is substantive evidence that TFA is not exclusively focused on filling teaching positions for which other qualified candidates cannot be found.