In 2007, fresh out of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Chris Turk snagged a coveted spot with the elite Teach For America program, landing here at Cherry Hill Elementary/Middle School in a blue-collar neighborhood at the city’s southern tip. For the past two years, he has taught middle-school social studies.

One recent afternoon, during a five-week “life skills” summer-school course, Turk tells his five students that their final project, a movie about what they’ve learned, has a blockbuster budget: $70.

“We can go big here,” he says. “We can go grand.”

He might as well be talking about the high-profile program that brought him here.

Despite a lingering recession, state budget crises and widespread teacher hiring slowdowns, Teach For America (TFA) has grown steadily, delighting supporters and giving critics a bad case of heartburn as it expands to new cities and builds a formidable alumni base of young people willing to teach for two years in some of the USA’s toughest public schools.

Baltimore Superintendent Andres Alonso — who says he has seen “fewer retirements, fewer resignations and just greater stability in terms of our teaching ranks,” much of it because of a reluctance to leave a secure job in a recession — has doubled the number of TFA teachers, known as “corps members,” in city schools over the past two years.

Next week, more than 160 new TFAers arrive in Baltimore, up from 80 in 2007. They’ll make up about one in four new hires.

Nationwide, about 7,300 young people are expected to teach under TFA’s banner, up from 6,200 last year. TFA is expanding from 29 regions to 35, including Dallas, Boston and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

But critics say the growth in many cities is coming at the expense of experienced teachers who are losing their jobs — in some cases, they say, to make room for TFA, which brings in teachers at beginners’ salary levels and underwrites training.

I have mixed feelings about this program. Those experienced teachers are eventually going to retire anyway, right? But then again, “underwrites training”? Really? If that’s the case, schools are screwed.

By Ben Tan — July 27, 2009

Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, participated in a town hall-style forum in Kansas City, Mo. yesterday.  The forum was organized and moderated by Jim Lehrer of “The NewsHour” on PBS.  It is the latest stop in a publicity campaign with a message: the central bank is here to help, and is not as mysterious or menacing as people may think.  Bernanke took questions from local residents and disputed charges that the Fed was conspiring with big banks or stifling free-market capitalism.  

A small-business owner asked Bernanke why the Fed helped rescue big banks while “short-changing” small companies.

Bernanke replied that he had decided to “hold my nose” because he feared the entire financial system would collapse.

“I’m as disgusted by it as you are,” said Bernanke before an audience of 190.

“Nothing made me more angry than having to intervene, particularly in a few cases where companies took wild bets.”

The forum resembled that of a political candidate, and indeed Bernanke’s four-year term expires in January.  Bernanke has put himself in the public spotlight to an extent far beyond that of his predecessors, departing from the bank’s tradition as an aloof, secretive temple of economic policy.  The bank has already become more open in the decade before Bernanke took charge, and his predecessor Alan Greenspan achieved fame during his long tenure.  But Fed officials still distanced themselves from partisan politics and day-to-day business life.  

Bernanke, on the other hand, has given a television interview to “60 Minutes” on CBS, including a tour of his hometown, Dillon, S.C.  He held essentially a televised news conference and has written newspaper commentaries to explain the Fed’s efforts to fight the financial crisis.  Last week Bernanke published a lengthy commentary in “The Wall Street Journal” and testified before three separate Congressional committees.