Teach for America (TFA) is a temp agency that staffs classrooms for usually two years per TFA recruit. Many of its alumni continue as *educators* by forming their own education-centered nonprofits or businesses, or by landing oft-elected-or-appointed administrative positions in education.

What TFA alumni overwhelmingly do not do is remain in the classroom as teachers. As a result, what an established TFA presence means to a school or a district is constant “teacher” turnover as TFAers leave the classroom after two years and others cycle in.

I attended the Network for Public Education (NPE) annual conference in Raleigh, NC, in April 2016. On one of my flights, I sat next to a TFA alum who did his classroom stint in East St. Louis several years ago. We talked for over an hour about his experiences with TFA, which he described as a “love-hate relationship.”

The way that our conversation began…