TFA places recent college grads in public schools serving low-income areas with teacher shortages, rural as well as urban, where they commit to teach for two years. Every teacher now enrolls in an alternative teacher-certification program while on the job. This allows her (73 percent are women) to be rated "highly qualified" under the No Child Left Behind law. But most are rookies who arrive uncertified, with their main training a five-week summer course that TFA requires of starting teachers.

In 17 years, TFA has placed more than 17,000 teachers. It has an operating budget of almost $120 million. This year, there are 2,900 new teachers in 26 places, ranging from Hawaii to Miami-Dade and South Dakota to the Rio Grande Valley. The largest local corps are in New York City and Los Angeles. TFA has 850 employees, including Kopp as CEO and founder. By 2010, it plans to grow to an operating budget of $160 million, with 4,000 new teachers in 35 places, and more than 1,000 employees.

In an annual Gallup Poll that TFA cites, Americans often blame low-income students and their families for the kids' relatively weak academic performance. Most corps members disagree, based on their experiences in the classroom. They blame weak performance on teachers and principals and their low expectations of students.

The overall mission is to help change the country's "prevailing ideology" about who deserves a first-rate education and is capable of profiting from it.