TFA’s Response to my Rejection (and of course, my response back!)

So recently, TFA offered me $1000, and I declined the money. My friend from TFA who relayed the offer yesterday responded to my blog post. Below is his reply, and mine, in the full spirit of transparency.

Hi Hannah,

I hope all is well! I’m reaching out because I was deeply disappointed to read your blog post today. Regardless of the tenor of the online conversation, you and I have always maintained excellent working relations, predicated on our shared desire to operate in the best interest of kids at all times. I have great respect for your passion and dedication. It was your passion and dedication to elevate student voices that sparked the idea, during our an initial conversation in the fall, to bring students themselves on USC campus to share their own voices. I remain as dedicated to that idea and excited about its potential to empower students as leaders in education.

I believe that true change will come from student leadership and that’s why I hoped to support you and the EdEmpowered Conference this Spring. After reading your blog, I am sadden that, what could have been a moment of true collaboration for and with students, feels like another moment of division among adults. My hope was to help the conference in any way to elevate student’s voices as the central focus. The only request that I made to accompany that support was that we keep the distraction of online attacks out of the equation. The contribution was offered in the spirit of two organizations with shared goals maximizing our collective energies and resources for a common purpose. The education conversation has become increasingly polarized by a host of issues. It is time that adults, such as you and I, move our personal agendas aside and truly empower students to advocate for students.

As key advocates of USC’s Ed Month, having in the past co-sponsored numerous events, including one hosted by our Founder and former CEO Wendy Kopp, TFA remains available to help the conference move forward- especially if local student’s voices are central.

All the best,

[omitted for privacy]

(P.S. Thank you for respecting my anonymity online; but I do ask that in the spirit of full transparency that you place this correspondence on your blog- THNAKS!)

—

Hi [omitted for privacy],

I hope all is well with you as well!

I want to be clear. I did genuinely appreciate your support for this event. After you called me the first time, I decided to share with you the materials I shared with everyone else that I had reached out to for support, because I have faith that you really do care about students’ voices, and I deeply respect your passion for this event’s mission. That has not changed one bit, and I appreciate you saying what you did because it really rings true for me.

The reason I am upset, however, is because originally I had asked for your support, as an individual. I made clear from the beginning that my request was for individual donations from personal supporters of the event. Yesterday when you called me with the offer, I was confused because I was under the impression that donations would be coming from people in your networks who you shared it with, as this has been been the method by which I have been asking friends of mine to help spread awareness and raise funds for the event. It wasn’t until you talked about taking off the #resistTFA content on the EmpowerED website and you mentioned the organization a couple times that I realized the money would be coming, with strings attached, from TFA itself, despite my previous requests. At this point, I felt powerless, censored, and manipulated by an organization that wanted to put their name on my event, once again despite my previous requests. I was very taken aback and confused by the whole thing. And while technical reasons do make it difficult to take money from TFA, I will reiterate my reasons for refusing funds from TFA.

I did it essentially to honor student voice.

A lot of TFA staff people talk about working together for the sake of students and setting aside personal agenda. All my life, I have been the kind of person who believes in that idea. But this isn’t about interference with an agenda; it’s about my values. I cannot morally accept funds from an organization that I resist because I value the experiences and voices of my fellow student organizers. I cannot work with an organization that is hurting public education in the same communities that students on the EmpowerED core team call home. I cannot work with an org that is simultaneously in the way of what I am trying to achieve, which is to honor student voice, and of what EmpowerED students are trying to achieve, which is educational justice for their communities.

In fact, the high school student representing the Newark Students Union just spoke up last week about the NSU’s stance against having TFA in their schools because they see the org as a threat to educational justice in their community. The student representatives from Chicago have also had a history of resisting Teach for America as a force that was undermining their community schools. So in the spirit of solidarity with those students and other students in the student power movement, I refuse to affiliate with an organization that so many students are actively fighting against. I choose instead to value their stories.

TFA may have sponsored past EdMonth events, but this EdMonth event will not be one of them. Because the conversation is shifting and EmpowerED will be unprecedented in its ability to unite students who say enough to top-down corporate education reforms that were made without their voice.

So while I understand and appreciate that you as an individual believe so much in the power of student voice, I cannot say the same for Teach for America. These are my reasons for declining this partnership.

Thank you.

Best,

Hannah Nguyen

For the record, I am tired of the “adults need to work together for kids” rhetoric because it negates the very core of grassroots organizing, power struggles, and collective liberation.