Teach For America and Wells Fargo recently announced the designation of $100,000 to support Teach For America’s work in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Huntsville and Selma according to a recent news release. The endeavor is an attempt to expand the organization’s presence in Alabama.

The $100,000 allocation brings Wells-Fargo’s total investment in Teach For America-Alabama to $250,000.

J.W. Carpenter, executive director of Teach For America-Alabama, said the generous donation helps to build a “pipeline” of leadership.

“The generous gift from Wells Fargo will support increased numbers of Teach for America corps members and alumni, who are dedicated to working alongside communities in their efforts to ensure that all of Alabama’s children have the educational opportunities they deserve,” Carpenter said. “Teach For America aggressively recruits high-achieving, high-potential teachers.”

Founded in 1990, Teach for America recruits and develops a diverse corps of individuals of all academic disciplines to commit two years to teach in high-need schools and become lifelong leaders in the movement to end education inequity.

Interim superintendent of Selma City Schools Gerald Shirley said his school system is familiar with teachers from the program and there have been no complaints.

“I know the Selma City Schools System has partnered with them for the last two years — their contract with us ends this year,” Shirley said. “You tend to see candidates from Teachers For America for sciences, special education, foreign languages and math. Most of the teachers have a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) rather than a B.S. (Bachelor of Science). To be optimistic about it, no one has voiced anything negative about Teach For America.”

Dallas County Schools superintendent Dr. Fannie McKenzie said her system does not currently have teachers from the program.

“Teach For America (teachers) are not educators (and) according to information I’ve read, their turnover rate is 132 percent higher than other teachers,” McKenzie said. “As you know, it takes two years to develop your skills as a teacher in order to have an impact on students.”

McKenzie said the board did look into the possibility of retrieving those teachers but have chosen not to participate in the program due to the higher costs.

Teach For America now has 79 members teaching in 11 school districts across the state.