| BH: | We are so consumed with building churches, social needs, poverty, etc. that we over look education. What made you passionate about this? |
| WK: | Went to a privileged school. At Princeton, had a roommate that struggled because she grew up in S. Bronx. Discovered that where you are born really makes a difference. Low income schools are multiple grade levels behind. It’s not that the families don’t care, kids can’t learn, etc. It’s that they aren’t given the opportunity. |
| BH: | All great leaders have a burning. What’s yours? |
| WK: | That all kids have a great education |
| BH: | And people feed off your passion |
| WK: | Not really. We empower people and have a strong sense of values. |
| BH: | But you expect that top college graduates would work for a pittance for two years |
| WK: | I knew they would. I was one of them. We have hundreds of people on the ground on campuses asking people what they’re doing and suggest that you can make a difference teaching. |
| BH: | You are shameless about asking people to sacrifice two years |
| WK: | I give them the opportunity to change the world, to make a difference in children’s lives. And what they learn will help them combat the problem the rest of their lives. Part of it is really believing in it. I really believe that we are giving people a gift. |
| BH: | Most people recommend starting small, making your mistakes. But you just went for big |
| WK: | I saw that to attract people of high caliber we’d have to be a movement. In 1950s, advisor to Truman concerning the Peace Corps said 500 people was the minimum number to communicate national significance, so we started with 500. Later, realized that I had to build an organization. All those administrative things I blew off were the difference between accomplishing our goals or not. Since there was no one else, I had to learn to lead an excellent organization. |
| BH: | You call yourself “an insanely aggressive” recruitment. But you are very selective despite massive recruitment and look for people with leadership rather than teaching skills |
| WK: | Effective teaching in this context is leadership. One teacher realized all her kids were three grades behind. She didn’t despair, just set a goal to put them on track. Was relentless. Did what was necessary. Her classroom communicated a sense of urgency. And she succeeded and placed her kids in the best middle schools in the city. |
| BH: | You started off budgeting what was needed, but were always short. But then you realized that you needed to size the organization to what you could raise. How did you come to that conclusion? |
| WK: | If I’d started that way, we wouldn’t have Teach for America. But I prefer to think about what we want to be in five years and raise that amount. |
| BH: | You shut down two divisions... |
| WK: | We were doing lots of other things that were important but not our core mission. We were resource strapped, and they weren’t our core mission, so we shut them down. |
| BH: | At one point you decided to sleep every other night in order to deliver leadership |
| WK: | Had to learn discipline and not do that. But also realized that in order to achieve the goals, I just had to do it. |
| BH: | All leaders have to just push through, doing things that we wouldn’t advocate, sometimes. |
| BH: | What’s your sales pitch? |
| WK: | One teacher in D.C. moved kids from 13th to 90th percentile in her two years. She knows we can do it. In the 1990s we had 3700 alums. We could have 3700 this year alone. To do this we need to grow our funding and you can help. Show them how their money is going to be used. |
| BH: | What is needed to solve the problem? |
| WK: | Teacher quality, principal quality, academic expectations. We have evidence that this is possible. (School in Houston has 90% college graduate rate (low-income), when other low-income schools have 7%) |
| BH: | And again, it’s your passion that it is solvable that motivates people |
| BH: | What would you preach to all these preachers here? |
| WK: | If it’s achievable, we have a moral imperative to do it. About half our teachers say that faith motivated them. I’m actually surprised it’s not more. |