Cleveland pays TFA $4000 for each recruit 1st year, $5000 2nd year. In addition to salary.

Of course the upfront payments likely benefit Teach for America more than the teacher/trainee/recruit.

Of course that lessens the amount that is received by local public schools, and it leaves laid off local teachers with few job prospects...even though they cost nothing to hire.

In case you fail to see the benefit of those millions going to TFA, join the club of the similarly confused.

Here is the Cleveland contract.

Sorry about the format, just copied pasted it.

Fees-for-Service.
i.
School District shall pay Teach For America an annu
al fee for each Teacher
employed under this Agreement to defray expenses Te
ach For America incurred in
recruiting, selecting, providing pre-service traini
ng and continuing professional
development services to the Teachers employed by Sc
hool District under this
agreement. School District agrees that all payment
s for fees shall be in the form of
check delivered to Teach For America or wire transf
er to an account designated by
Teach For America in writing.
ii.
With respect to each Teacher whose employment by Sc
hool District is to commence
in the 2013-2014 academic year, School District sha
ll pay Teach For America an
annual amount of $4000 for the first academic year
in which such Teacher is
employed by School District and $5000 for the secon
d academic year in which such
Teacher is employed by the School District, up to t
wo years [from the date such
employment is to commence].
B.
Non-refund. Teach For America shall have no obliga
tion to refund to School District
any amount paid by School District in respect of an
y Teacher for any reason whatsoever.
For the avoidance of doubt, School District will be
invoiced fees for each of the
individual Teacher(s) initially employed by the Sch
ool District

SO a TFA teacher can be lousy and ineffective, but the district can not get their money back. SO TFA will not be held accountable?

Here is the link to the Chicago Public Schools contract

They will pay $3000 to TFA for each 1st year referral, $2500 2nd year. Not to exceed 465 qualified referrals. Not to exceed $1, 587, 500.

Want to hear what others are paying to the private company Teach for America instead of hiring teachers locally for free?

From the Cloaking Inequity Blog

We reviewed the documents provided by the three large, urban districts in Texas. As an example of the types of information that a public information request will yield, we have highlighted some of the facts gleaned from our Texas district requests. For example, in terms of financial information, it appears from the contracts that we obtained that TFA allows inequality in the amounts that they charge in fees to districts for TFA placements. In Houston, each TFA teacher costs the district $2,000 annually in finder’s fees, while in Dallas and San Antonio the cost is $3,000 per teacher annually. In San Antonio, TFA “finder’s fees” total about $483,000. Also, even though TFA teachers have less experience, the San Antonio’s expenditures for TFA teachers are the same per FTE as for non-TFA teachers, $59,513. (Note: There will be allot more information on TFA’s cost in the upcoming brief)

The dependence on short-term TFA teachers varies from community to community. The data gathered from the public information requests show that the penetration of TFA teachers into the largest urban districts in Texas is substantial. The district data revealed that 30% of all new teachers hired in San Antonio ISD were TFA. In Houston, 9% of all teachers were TFA.

A little more from The American Prospect.

But while TFA reckons with its model and its future, the growing national debate is taking a toll on the organization. Over the past year, two large school districts, Pittsburgh and Durham, North Carolina, rescinded hiring contracts with TFA. In September, the national student labor organization, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) announced a campaign aimed at kicking TFA recruiters off college campuses. In a open letter sent to the CEO and board chair of Teach for America, USAS leaders wrote:

TFA’s shift from an organization providing volunteers to overcome teacher shortages to an organization that de­professionalizes the teaching career and displaces veteran teachers has forced us as students to ask our universities to reconsider relationships with Teach for America.

In December, TFA announced that it is having trouble recruiting candidates to teach in New York City schools—a problem organization leaders attribute, in part, to the “contentious national dialogue” surrounding TFA’s impact on school districts and the teaching profession. In anticipation of declining corps members, TFA plans to close its New York and Los Angeles training sites.

There's an argument going around that some districts claim to get private outside money for these lavish payments to TFA. If true they should be upfront and clear about the sources and should make information readily available to the local out of work teachers and general public.