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If the recent multi-million dollar donation from the Walton Family, which owns Walmart, is any indication of its real agenda, the non-profit organization Teach For America could be seen be a vehicle for promoting charter schools and undermining unions.

The Walton Foundation is known for espousing an anti-union, pro-privatization model for the nation’s educational system and some critics contend that Walmart’s owners are promoting those goals through Teach For America.

TFA was founded in 1989 in response to a real national teacher shortage and has funneled thousands of young, talented, often privileged and white teachers into inner-city classrooms after only 5 weeks of training.

Now some of TFA’s alumni are speaking out, denouncing TFAs tactics as promoting government policies of excessive standardized testing, and providing an army of recruits to replace veteran union teachers in charter schools.

TFA is also being accused of playing up racial power dynamics between poor students of color and privileged young white teachers and pushing a neo-liberal, pro-capitalist ideology.

GUEST: Owen Davis, Education writer and an alumnus of the Teach for America program, His article entitled Teach for America Apostates: a Primer of Alumni Resistance, was just published in Truthout.org.

Click here to read Owen Davis’ article about Teach for America.