By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

ST. PAUL, Minn. – If you can’t beat ‘em, make their lives as miserable as possible.

That’s the Minnesota teacher union’s philosophy toward Teach for America, the alternative teaching program that puts some of America’s smartest and most capable college graduates in needy, hard-to-staff schools.

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On Friday, the union advanced its “sand-in-the-gears” approach when the Minnesota Board of Teaching voted 8-2 to require TFA educators to apply for individual approval from the state before setting foot in the classroom this fall, reports StarTribune.com.

In previous years, the state had “granted TFA a temporary variance from licensing rules that allowed its recruits to begin teaching as soon as they were done with their initial TFA training and pass the same state licensing exams as any conventionally trained teacher,” reports MinnPost.com.

Friday’s ruling presents an obstacle for school principals who want to hire one of TFA’s 45 new Minnesota recruits. Each individual TFA educator will have to apply for a temporary license from the state, a process that takes up to a month-and-a-half and involves a small mountain of paperwork, reports Minnesota Public Radio.

This new, labor-intensive process is being sold as a way of ensuring all Teach for America educators are properly prepared for the classroom.

But the reality is TFA has a stellar record of recruiting only individuals who have both the talent and the temperament to succeed as teachers. The group has been so successful in its mission that their teachers are in big demand with school administrators across the nation.

The only meaningful result from the board’s ruling is that school leaders may think twice before hiring TFA instructors and subjecting themselves to a long, laborious process.

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That’s precisely the goal of Education Minnesota – the state’s largest teachers union – which is only interested in protecting the jobs of its members, regardless of how well or badly they instruct students.

StarTribune.com notes this is the “second setback in three weeks” that TFA has suffered at the hands of Minnesota state officials, who appear to be operating hand-in-glove with the teachers union.

Last month, Education Minnesota successfully pressured Gov. Mark Dayton into nixing $1.5 million in funding that would have allowed TFA to expand its presence in the state.

The union was also heavily involved in Friday’s ruling by the Minnesota Board of Teaching. MinnPost.com reports that five of the board’s 11 members “hold leadership positions in Education Minnesota, its locals or the AFL-CIO.”

After Education Minnesota’s most recent victory, union boss Tom Dooher boasted about the group’s power within the state.

“Obviously we are influencers and we are going to continue to exert our influence in a positive way for teacher quality and teacher learning,” Dooher told Minnesota Public Radio.

But former Minnesota TFA director Daniel Sellers sees it very differently.

“It’s unconscionable that many Board of Teaching members allowed politics and their allegiances to the teachers union to keep highly effective teachers from teaching in high-needs communities,” Sellers told StarTribune.com.