Nashville pays $3 million to Teach for America

The city of Nashville has made a multimillion-dollar commitment to the Teach for America program.

TFA trains recent college graduates and working professionals to teach for two years in high-poverty communities.

After looking at the program, Mayor Karl Dean committed to raise the million dollar per year cost from private sources to bring it to Nashville. He says TFA wanted a multi year commitment.

“You need a million dollars for each year and they wanted us to be sure we could find it going out three years so it just wasn’t a one time deal.”

The funds raised are strictly for training. Participants’ salaries will be paid by Metro Schools. The Nashville site hopes to maintain 50 TFA teachers a year.

Teach for America training will being at Lipscomb University this fall.