Update on Federal Support for Teach For America

Teach For America corps members and alumni continue to improve educational and life prospects for students in low-income communities.  With demand from applicants and school districts at an all-time high, we have ambitious plans to expand our scale and impact.

Sustained federal support is critical to this growth.  For FY11, potential funding sources include:

FY11 Federal Budget

Both the House and Senate appropriations bills currently include more than $20 million for Teach For America in FY11.

Innovation Fund

Teach For America recently was selected from among 1,700 applicants to receive a $50 million “scale-up” grant, to be paid over four years, through the U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation (i3) competition.  Five other organization founded or run by Teach For America alumni – KIPP, The New Teacher Project, New Schools New Orleans, IDEA Public Schools and the School of One – also won i3 grants.

AmeriCorps

AmeriCorps has expanded its longstanding support for Teach For America, awarding $11.4 million annually for the next three years, as well as increased education awards for all of our corps members.

Congressional Supporters

Thanks to thousands of calls and e-mails from supporters of Teach For America, more than 100 Members of Congress signed written letters of support for our 2011 funding request: