Oh, It's The Teacher's Fault

By Linda Kaye Jones

Proposition 74 is not the answer to education reform

As a teacher myself, I'd like to focus on Proposition 74, target group- public school teachers. This proposition extends the time it takes for teachers to earn tenure because it creates a waiting period for permanent status. It is titled the "Put The Kids First Act." Unfortunately, this proposition will add to an already cumbersome collective bargaining process, undermine the authority of school boards and county offices to define unsatisfactory performance, and add millions in costs to the current evaluation system. It will do nothing to improve education or help students. However, it will take away the due process of teachers. Teacher tenure doesn't guarantee a job just due process (a right to a fair hearing before they are fired). Currently, any teacher who is on probationary status can be let go without being given a reason for firing.

Under the current law, the probationary period for teachers is two years with performance evaluations required at least once each year for probationary teachers and at least once every two years for teachers with permanent status. Under current law, teachers can be fired at any time for a number of reasons, including unprofessional conduct or unsatisfactory performance in the classroom. By extending teachers' probationary periods to five years, this would require local boards and county offices to perform two additional performance evaluations during a teacher's first five years, resulting in an additional 35,000 evaluations each year statewide, not to mention the negative impact this proposition will have on teacher recruitment and retention. With administrative shortages, knowing that these costs will not be reimbursed by the State, and local budgets already stretched to the max, how many districts are going to be able to hire enough administrators to carry out this task and where is the money going to come from? Of course, we all know the answer, out of student programs.

If the intent is truly an effort to improve teacher quality, than an area of reform at the local level should be aimed at developing a system wide standard or set of criteria with a set timeline that every administrator would be required to follow. In addition, the focus should also be on providing administrative support and training in this area. If the process for evaluation is carried out by trained administrators in a time period agreed upon by both teachers and the district, than those teachers that have demonstrated consistent unsatisfactory performance after haven been provided reasonable support whether tenure or not can be dismissed based on the provisions of the law and the board policy. Yes, I will agree that there are some bad apples but there are also programs that do work to mentor, encourage and weed out struggling teachers, unfortunately, not all districts take advantage of those programs, tie them in to their evaluative process and provide the necessary paper trail to document that intervention was provided.

The second area of focus and the most critical component in improving our schools is teacher quality. The focus should be on retaining and recruiting the best and the brightest, provide them with the support they need for the daily challenges they face and assigning them equitably among our schools. When all the politicians are long gone, our teachers are still there shouldering the burden of a system gone wild.

It's time to stop making teachers the scapegoats for a system that everyone has failed. We owe it to ourselves where well over 90% of our nation's children are educated to stand behind our public school teachers. Proposition 74 is not the answer.