300 million ways to support Teach for America this holiday season

Happy holidays, reader! Tis the time of year when our thoughts turn to the neediest among us, those that require just a little extra giving this season. I give you: the Philadelphia Public Schools Teach for America. You see, it takes a lot of those special Christmas envelopes, each containing a crisp $10 bill, to add up to TFA’s now $306 million annual budget (roughly 30,600,000 envelopes by my calculations). Fortunately TFA has plenty of corporate elves working overtime to ensure that its stocking is filled with excellence this year. Let’s meet these little helpers, shall we?

Honk if U Like Excellence

First up: Subaru’s Share the Love Event. Here’s how it works—buy or lease a new Subaru and the company will make a $250 donation to Meals on Wheels, Make-a-Wish, the National Parks Foundation, the ASPCA or Teach for America. Hungry elders, sick kids, litter strewn parks—the appeal of the other charities is obvious, but exactly what will our sending $250 worth of Subaru bucks to TFA accomplish? According to the Share the Love website, “More than 16 million American children face the extra challenges of poverty. Your donation helps recruit and support more passionate, committee [sic] teachers who help them achieve at the highest levels.” Note: this model not available with extended warranty.

FedExcellence


Reader: what if we could close the achievement gap—overnight??? That’s the dream of overnight package shipper extraordinaire FedEx, which recently announced that it was kicking in $2.5 million to TFA through 2015 in order to grow ”the movement of leaders who work to ensure that kids growing up in poverty get an excellent education.” But there’s more. Customers can now send excellence express using new FedEx One Rate. Through December 23, $1 from every FedEx One Rate transaction will be donated to TFA. But while the FedEx elves will be working overtime *giving customers across the United States a simple way to give the gift of education,* the elves aren’t eligible for overtime. That’s because FedEx classifies its elves as independent contractors, which means no benefits and a union-free workshop.

Does This Shirt Make Me Look Excellent?


Closing the achievement gap is sweaty work—especially if you’ve been on the job for, say, more than two years. Nothing says “excellence” like a $32.50 linen tee from J Crew, designed as part of the company’s Garments for Goods contest. Best of all, the entire proceeds from the shirt will go to benefit Teach for America, even the size xx-small which, if you are reading this, is MUCH too small for you. And while you’re doing your shopping at J Crew, be sure to pick out some of the favorite picks of the shoppers who liked the TFA tee. They include this $49.50 Hugo Guinness “me, me, me” tee, this $49.50 Hugo Guinness “blah, blah, blah” tee or, one that might actually be right for you, this $49.50 Hugo Guinness “nobody’s perfect” tee.

Get Off of My Cloud


Reader: nothing says “I love you” at holiday time like the gift of anti-virus software. But why settle for plain-old vanilla anti-viral agents when you can give a TFA two-fer? Symantec, which you may know via the irritating Norton ads that are constantly popping up on your computer, recently announced that it is giving $500,000 to TFA as part of #GivingTuesday, bringing its total contribution to the group to more than $4 million. Here’s hoping that Symantec can also give TFA the gift of security for all of the student data it has been amassing. A little noticed provision in TFA’s new contract with the Cleveland Public Schools gives TFA unlimited access to student records, including the authority to share student data with third parties. In other words, happy holidays!

Now how about making a donation that won’t benefit TFA but will keep this excellent blog afloat? Happy holidays from EduShyster…