ANNUAL BENEFIT RAISES MORE THAN $4 MILLION TO SUPPORT TEACH FOR AMERICA IN NEW YORK CITY

Stephen Feinberg, CEO of Cerberus Capital Management, Honored
Michelle Rhee, Founder, CEO, and President of The New Teacher Project and Alumna of Teach For America’s 1992 Corps, Honored with Inaugural Peter Jennings Award for Civic Leadership

NEW YORK, May 21, 2007—Teach For America’s Annual New York City Benefit Dinner, held May 16 at the Waldorf-Astoria, raised more than $4 million to support its New York City teaching corps. The event, which drew more than 1,100 guests, honored Stephen Feinberg, chief executive officer of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., and was chaired by Jon Winkelried, president and co-chief operating officer of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

The $4 million raised represents a 33 percent increase over last year’s total. The proceeds will help support New York City’s 1,000 Teach For America corps members—up from 250 only a few years ago—who are directly impacting the lives of nearly 75,000 students. Currently, Teach For America places corps members to teach in nearly 300 schools across the Bronx, Washington Heights, Harlem, the Lower East Side, and Brooklyn.

Teach For America enlists our nation’s most promising future leaders in the effort to eliminate educational inequity. These outstanding recent college graduates commit two years to teach in America’s highest-need urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in pursuit of educational excellence.

This year’s gala had the largest turnout of any Teach For America benefit in the organization’s history, a testament to the strong support provided by Teach For America’s corporate partners.

“New York City leaders from across the spectrum have come together to contribute to our mission to expand educational opportunity for children growing up in New York City,” said Andrew Bray, vice president for development at Teach For America - New York City. “We are very grateful to have so many generous New Yorkers supporting our corps members in their efforts to pursue academic excellence with their students.”

The program featured remarks by New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who underscored the urgency of Teach For America’s mission and the responsibility of the attendees to take action.

“We face a crisis in this nation in public education,” Mr. Klein said. “If you look at the racial and ethnic achievement gap in this country 200 years after its founding—53 years after Brown v. Board of Education—it is the shame of this nation, the greatest nation on earth.”

However, Mr. Klein emphasized that the achievement gap can be solved. He pointed to citywide reforms currently taking place and highlighted the success of the Bronx Lab School, which was recently restructured under the guidance of principal Mark Sternberg, a Teach For America alumnus.

When Mr. Sternberg took over the school, it had a graduation rate of 40 percent, Mr. Klein said, and the 100 African-American and Latino students were two to three grade levels behind. This year, more than 90 percent of Bronx Lab students will graduate.

Mr. Klein called on the attendees to face the truth—that the public education system in America will not change until the people insist that it does.

“We can do this,” he said. “It’s a question of whether we have the will to do this.”

Cerberus Capital Management’s Stephen Feinberg Honored
Cerberus Capital Management Chief Executive Officer Stephen Feinberg received this year's Teach For America Annual Award, which recognizes a leader who shares the organization's mission of expanding educational opportunity for all children. Event chair Jon Winkelried, presented Mr. Feinberg with the award.

In his remarks, Mr. Winkelried praised his friend and colleague for his outstanding business leadership and support of Teach For America and its mission. He noted all that Mr. Feinberg has done to advance the cause of Teach For America among the business community.

Mr. Winkelried also highlighted Teach For America's Sponsor A Teacher campaign, which allows donors to provide resources for the recruitment, training, and support of individual New York City corps members. After recognizing the current sponsors, he encouraged the attendees to sponsor a teacher for the upcoming school year, noting that he and his wife are proud sponsors themselves: "It's personally fulfilling to know that we've played a small part in the success of this most worthy organization."

The New Teacher Project's Michelle Rhee Awarded Inaugural Peter Jennings Award for Civic Leadership
Michelle Rhee, founder, chief executive officer, and president of The New Teacher Project, was presented with the inaugural Peter Jennings Award for Civic Leadership. The award recognizes a Teach For America alumnus who in the past year has exerted great leadership to expand education opportunity. The award was presented by Kayce Freed Jennings and Elizabeth Jennings.

As a '92 Baltimore corps member, Ms. Rhee taught fourth grade at Harlem Park Community School. After earning her master’s degree, she founded TNTP to address issues of teach shortages and teacher quality across the country. Under her leadership, TNTP has worked with more than 200 school districts in 23 states and has recruited, hired, prepared, or trained more than 23,000 new teachers since 1997.

For more information on The New Teacher Project, visit http://www.tntp.org/.

About Teach For America
Teach For America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity. Currently, 4,400 corps members are teaching in over 1,000 schools in 25 regions across the country; more than 12,000 Teach For America alumni continue working from inside and outside the field of education for the fundamental changes necessary to ensure educational excellence and equity. For more information, visit www.teachforamerica.org.