They left lucrative careers as lawyers, consultants, counselors and Hill staffers to join the D.C. Teaching Fellows program, to make a difference as highly qualified teachers and earn an all expenses paid graduate degree in education.
Now in their second of a two-year commitment as full-salaried D.C. Public Schools special education teachers, these fellows are disgusted. They are owed thousands of dollars for Trinity University graduate classes they were required to finance up front with cash or student loans, with the promise of full reimbursement. Some talk of suing.
Most will not return to the classroom once their commitment ends in 2007, they say; it’s not worth the hassle.
“If you stripped away the red tape, everyone loves it, and we are good teachers,” said Danielle Sullivan, 28, a former congressional aide. “We are really good and we care. So what’s heartbreaking is that the system is breaking us.”
A spokeswoman for the District’s chief financial officer said last week 89 fellows would be immediately reimbursed $124,422 for back tuition, averaging out to $1,300 a person. But the fellows, at least those who attend Trinity University, are owed more than $4,000 each for the spring and summer semesters.
“I’m really upset about it,” said Tommy Wells, the District 3 School Board member and Democratic nominee for the Ward 6 D.C. Council seat. “Beside it being a great program, we’re asking these folks to teach for us. We really want to be a good employer. I’m angry.”
Wells said he’d hadn’t heard similar complaints from previous fellow classes, so his “hope is it’s only a hiccup.”
Lured by a well-designed Internet campaign and slick Web site, the 2005 fellows class survived a competitive application process and rigorous six-week training program to secure a slot. Under their contract, in addition to receiving starting teacher salary and benefits, up front payments for graduate classes would be repaid within one semester.
One fellow, Resheeda Hinkson, negotiated a mortgage with that assurance in hand.
But the Trinity students were told, via an Oct. 17 e-mail from a D.C. Teaching Fellows manager, that “budget resources” were unavailable and therefore the reimbursement checks have been “delayed indefinitely.” An Oct. 18 letter from Tony Demasi, DCPS executive director for human resources, confirmed that “budget constraints” had pushed back payments.
The problems have left thefellows angry, cash-poor and cynical.
“I came from my previous experience working on financial corruption in the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip,” said Ghassan Haddad, 31. “My experience with DCPS has left me more depressed, more frustrated, than being there.”
