Letter: Better ways to get experts in classrooms

Thursday, Jan. 22, 2004 | 8:49 a.m.

So Teach For America may place 100 top graduates in Clark County schools to help bridge the gap in education caused by socioeconomic conditions (Las Vegas Sun, Jan 13). They claim their teachers are "subject matter experts" while at the same time are "driven ... and concerned with the disparity between school test scores and socioeconomic backgrounds." What? Students elect the rigors of majoring in, say, chemistry, physics, science, etc., because they believe they can correct the disparity in socioeconomic backgrounds through teaching? Not likely.

Teach For America's website reveals that only 11 percent of their alumni -- their subject matter experts -- majored in math, science and engineering, and 18 percent majored in language and literature. But these are the subjects in which our students are so deficient. The other 70 percent of the alumni majored in social science, government and policy, humanities, etc.

And this deal is going to cost $2.8 million "to recruit, train, and provide ongoing development ... over its first two years." Idiocy! Las Vegas already has a vast pool of subject matter experts in its senior citizens, many of whom would love to teach, even on a volunteer basis.

Wendy Kopp, founder and president of Teach For America, and Dr. Brian Cram, director of the Greenspun Family Foundation, which supports the organization, might better serve the community and our students by directing their talents to devise a fast-track system for getting subject-matter experts in the form of our senior citizens into the classroom.

FRANK E. BUPP