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Program funds may change

Taylor Dolven, Senior Staff Writer

The new budget proposal from the Obama administration could cut federal funding for Teach for America (TFA), limiting the program's ability recruit from universities including Miami University.

TFA is a program recruiting top college graduates across the country to become teachers in public schools. In previous years, TFA has received $21 million in federal funding, according to spokeswoman Katilin Gastrock.

The proposed budget includes a new competitive grants program called Teacher and Leader Pathways that would force organizations from all over the country to compete for funding. Because programs like TFA would have to wait through this competitive process to find out how much funding they would receive, Teacher and Leader Pathways would impair the ability for schools to plan ahead.

Gastrock estimates TFA would lose the ability to reach an estimated 86,000 additional students in the 2011-12 school year.

"Witout the federal contribution communities, children all across the country would lose out on this leadership pipeline and will feel the consequences for years to come," Gastrock said. The cut in federal funding does not allow TFA to affect as many children as they would like, according to Courter Shimeall, TFA recruitment director for Ohio universities. "We want to positively affect as many kids as we can," Shimeall said. "Anything that hinders that is not a good thing."

Miami graduate LaToya Irvine works in Dallas, Texas teaching third grade reading through TFA. She met Shimeall at the career fair.

"I couldn't imagine doing anything else right now," Irvine said. "It has been very positive for me."

She worries the cut in funding could hurt the program's ability to recruit and train volunteers.

"It is vital that organizations such as Teach for America get the funding they need to support these very dedicated teachers," she said.

Although the program only has a two-year commitment, Irvine is planning to take on at least two more years after she has completed her time.

While applications from volunteers are on the rise, so is the demand for TFA volunteers in schools across the country, Gastrock said. According to Gastrock, more than 46,000 people applied for teaching positions in the 2010 corps, but there is still a large waiting list for school districts that are eager to bring TFA volunteers to their schools.

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The final decision on the budget is up to congress, so TFA has launched a campaign directed at rallying support from senators. The program is asking for $50 million in federal funding.

"That would allow us to grow to a scale where we would be affecting one million children growing up in poverty each school year by 2016," Gastrock said.

Miami graduates have been involved in TFA since it was established in 1990. This year, 3.6 percent of Miami's senior class applied to join the 2010 corps. "We are really excited about that," Gastrock said. "We have a lot of excellent candidates."

Gastrock, Shimeall and Irvine are hopeful about TFA's future. "I am positive it will pass because Teach for America has shown a lot of success," Irvine said.

Shimeall said even if the program does not receive the requested funding, it will still be able to have a positive effect.

"No matter what, we are going to be able to affect a lot of kids, but federal funding determines to what degree," Shimeall said.

The response from congress so far has been positive, Schimeall said. Supporting the TFA cause has been made easy, through a simple box on the Web site supporters can click on to e-mail or call their senator asking them to join the campaign.

"Even if people aren't interested themselves in being teachers, a lot of people can agree with the fact that everyone deserves a fair shot at an education regardless of where they are from," Shimeall said.

A full list of supporting congress members can be seen on the TFA Web site (http://www.teachforamerica.org) as well as information about contacting your local congress member.