WCNC

CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman announced a $4 million gift for hiring Teach For America teachers.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman announced some major help in recruiting teachers.

The Spangler Foundation, based in Charlotte, announced Monday it will give $4 million to Teach For America to help find top teachers for CMS. Teach for America is a national foundation that help recruits top teaching graduates. The money will add a total of 150 teachers over the next two years.

Those teachers will start next year and will serve in high poverty schools, positions that CMS has struggled to fill. Gorman said CMS needs 1,200 teachers every year, far more than what universities are turning out.

"I'm grateful for those new Teach For America teachers and I hope they will like Charlotte. I hope that many of them will remain in the teaching profession here, and others will decide to choose Charlotte as their hometown," said Dick Spangler, Jr.

Spangler has served as a member of the CMS Board of Education, chairman of the State Board of Education and president of the University of North Carolina. His daughters are graduates of West Charlotte High School