In a real break with her own national leadership and many other state level teachers' union organizations, the head of the Kentucky Education Association (KEA), Sharron Oxendine, is saying some very nice things about the Teach for America program (TFA). TFA is placing college graduates from some of the nation’s finest universities into K to 12 classrooms.

TFA teachers already have outstanding knowledge in their chosen college majors such as science and math. TFA provides them a short, but important, introduction into teaching and then these high performing college students enter the classroom under Kentucky’s alternative teacher certification program.

This process has apparently caused friction in other states, perhaps because rank and file teachers might feel threatened by the high academic performance of TFA teachers.

However, it looks like the KEA's leader is moving beyond such short-sighted viewpoints as an article titled “KEA may be the most pro-TFA teachers union in the country” in the Rural Blog (scroll down in the set of articles to find it) points out.