AGE: 41
OCCUPATION: Founder and CEO of Teach for America
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 0
PRO: Kopp conceived of TFA in 1989, in her Princeton senior thesis. Since then, it's funneled thousands of talented, occasionally aimless college graduates into teaching positions at troubled schools. By 2010, TFA plans to manage 8,000 corps members, who will make up 10% to 30% of the new teachers in the 33 communities they serve.
CON: Two-year, Peace Corps–like stints equate teaching with public service or charity work — does that erode its ethos as a profession? Is this education or humani-tourism? Given the horrendous shortage of good teachers, does the distinction matter?