William Ayers Attacks Teach for America

Claims they don't care as much as those union teachers do

Weather Underground terrorist-turned-academic and Obama confidant William Ayers is taking up a cause near and dear to teachers unions: bashing a program that sends young, idealistic college grads into the inner city to teach poor kids.

The nonprofit Teach for America is a "fraud" whose participants are nothing but "educational tourists," said Ayers, a onetime associate of President Obama who was a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago before retiring. The 68-year-old firebrand, now a self-styled educational theorist, said the program's young grads are merely passing through the gritty neighborhoods where they serve to pad their resumes at the expense of longer-term educators represented by unions.

"It's a fraud on every level because it's not going to change teaching, it's going to undermine teaching," Ayers said at a recent educational summit. He added that the young teachers "are the nicest kids in the world," but said the program itself is misguided.

(Hat tip to Reason commenter $park¥)