Julie DelegalCalifornia Superior Judge Rolf Treu has swallowed the corporate-reform narrative on education –hook, line and sinker.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the judge agreed with attorneys representing nine student plaintiffs who contend that it’s teacher tenure law — not student poverty, not state underfunding, not bureaucratic largesse, not any other factor — that disproportionately harms student performance in the classroom. Never mind thatnone of the plaintiffs’ teacherswere found to be “grossly incompetent,” and that one of them was named “Teacher of the Year.”
The judge said that it’s too difficult to fire bad teachers in California, buying into the anti-union shtick that political spinmeisters like Richard Berman have been cultivating for years.
The premise is that teachers are bad, bad people, and any problems with education is all their fault. The evil teacher-union idea gained traction thanks to ad campaigns developed by Berman, the same marketing guru who’d have you feed your baby high-fructose corn syrup right from the bottle, too, because, you know, it’s just sugar.
But back to tackling the PR campaign that’s just become a judicial issue for appeal: Is it too tough to fire a teacher? If an administrator or superintendent doesn’t know what he or she is doing, then yes — yes it is. If you don’t take the time to document, in detail, exactly what a teacher did wrong, or if you don’t hire competent investigators, then yes, it becomes quite difficult to fire teachers.
But how can a judge leap over the process of firing teachers and decry the constitutionally enacted, collectively bargained rules that govern that process? I’m no attorney, but I don’t think he can — and neither do the attorneys representing teachers in California.
The case will likely be overturned on appeal, and here’s why: Teacher-tenure rules like the ones in California aren’t designed to keep bad teachers in place. They’re designed, instead, to protect the due process rights of good teachers.
Remember due process? It’s a big legal concept in the justice system, so big that it’s found in not one, but two, Amendments to the United States Constitution. When government officials get into the business of hiring and firing people, we want them to act transparently. Otherwise, we end up with people in positions of power hiring their friends and family members and firing people they simply don’t like. When it comes to public employment, we have rules against those sorts of things.
Government agents simply cannot fire people willy-nilly — they must show cause. That takes a little work, and there’s the rub. School districts need to hire people who think more like lawyers and cops to weed out bad teachers. Lawyers and cops tend to think differently than most educators. They know the difference between a mere allegation and actual evidence. Their guiding principle is due process of law.
Taking the extreme, illogical and unwarranted step of invalidating a bedrock legal principle throws the baby (good laws) out with the bathwater (bad teachers).
Ask any high school teacher who’s ever been falsely accused of anything. Interview 10 different students and often you’ll get 10 different versions of events. Ask the chorus teacher about accusations of favoritism. Ask the history teacher about accusations of political incorrectness.
Every parent in America has gone to school somewhere. We’ve all had good teachers and bad teachers, and we all think we know the difference. Most of us know the value of talking in depth to our children about what’s going on in school. We know when to call another parent, when to email or call the teacher, and when, if all else fails, we should go up the chain of command. Unfortunately, though, some parents are perpetually ready to pounce.
As an education reporter, I’ve seen teachers hold their breath every time a new principal gets assigned to their school: Will she keep me here? Or will she hire her church friends instead? Does he value the current leadership at the school, enough to hold onto the good solid teachers who want to stay? Or will he foolishly drive out some talented people in his zeal to reform?
The corporate reform crowd needs to tread lightly. If laws protecting due process for public educators are abolished, it leaves the terrifying possibility that good teachers can easily be fired for all the wrong reasons. That could devastate public schools.
One has to wonder, though, with all the emphasis on for-profit ventures like virtual schools and charter schools, whether that’s what the corporate-reform crowd had in mind all along.
Julie Delegal, a University of Florida graduate, is a contributor for Folio Weekly, Jacksonville’s alternative weekly, and writes for the family business, Delegal Law Offices. She lives in Jacksonville. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
