By the spring of 2007, Roy Sachse’s boss had had it.
In a span of 18 months, a co-worker accused Sachse of cussing her out. A confiscated note suggested he wanted to meet a 14-year-old girl behind a Dumpster. A parent said he threatened to pull another girl’s pants down. Away from work, police arrested Sachse (pronounced SAX-see) on a charge of stealing a $5.95 sandwich — an arrest he was supposed to tell his boss about within 48 hours, but investigators said he did not.
[…]
In many workplaces, Sachse, now 49 and making $50,120 a year, would have been fired. But Sachse isn’t just any worker.
He’s a teacher. Teachers are rarely fired.
In Florida, most teachers have tenure, a status written into state law that gives them special legal protections. Most also have a union willing to wage a legal fight for them. The combination yields a firing process so tedious and time-consuming, districts rarely bother.
When teachers earned workplace protections in the early 20th century, tenure was intended as a shield against overbearing parents and heavy-handed school boards.
Supporters say the need remains. Just imagine, they say, what could happen to tenure-less science teachers in stretches of Florida where evolution is ridiculed.
But critics say tenure’s shield is too often extended to teachers who don’t deserve it.
Tenure protects a Great Man. Dr. Kevin Macdonald is a genius who loves his people!
#23, “Remember, the teachers do not pick… …”
If that long list is meant to be an “out” then why do we even bother? There has to be some way of quantifying acceptable performance, else there is no basis to identify unacceptable and in need of improvement. I don’t have a good answer.
If you’re serious about this issue, this book must be read: http://books.google.com/books?id=NDvfCXOIKcgC
The NEA was created in an effort to protect the overwhelmingly female teachers from the overwhelmingly male administrations. As with many such unions, the original need is lost to history but the union remains.
Lots study has been done on the US education system, but no politician, so far, has had the guts to make meaningful change. Bush’s NCLB was a wasted effort.
#33 – Thanks for the reference.
Guess I’m way behind the times. I thought tenure agreements had a morals clause.
#1 bobbo:
“Tenure = OUT.
Strong effective pro-education unions = IN.”
Who the hell do you think wants tenure for teachers?! THE UNIONS!
I’m all for tenure and unions as long as school choice is also in the equation.
Considering unions are, by and large, against that, they show their hand as the problem in the equation.
“a confiscated note suggested”, “a co-worker accused”, “a parent said”. Only thing for certain is that a sandwich was molested by a foreign looking guy with a foreign sounding name.
There are still men left in the schools? I thought all the male teachers were driven out by the sucky pay, not to mention the threat of prosecution for inappropriate behavior.
We have tenure.
If confirmed some of those things would have gotten one of us fired. The stuff with the minors would have been an instant out. His license to teach would have been revoked. If you have due cause you can fire anybody. I don’t know how many people have been fired this year but some have been fired. The one I know for sure was for chronic late to work.
On the other hand people say a lot of bad things about people and as often as not they are lying trying to get them in trouble.
The only thing tenure means is they need a real reason rather than wanting to give your job to a friend and can’t act without any real evidence that you have done something wrong.
If they have the proof you are gone.
By the way until you are rehired the fourth time they don’t need any reason to fire you.
Well, there is the NYC school district’s solution to the problem. I can’t remember where I read about it, this blog or a newspaper. Whenever a teacher in the NYC system is in trouble, they are not fired. Instead they report to an office where they sit and do nothing, day after day after day. In some cases, for years. Basically, they stick them in purgatory until they quit on their own.
“The combination yields a firing process so tedious and time-consuming, districts rarely bother.”
Tenure and unions don’t bother me as much as lazy administrators who don’t do their job. Yes, tenure makes firing a teacher harder, just like workplace laws make firing more difficult… But NOT impossible. The manager/administrator just has to do the work! I’ve worked in enough big corporations in my career, and my wife was a “classified” (non-tenured) school secretary long enough to know that many managers/administrators are just too lazy to build a case against a bad employee. It is so much easier to just push them off on another department or school in the district.
#27, Techguy,
Half the things Fusion states that teachers DON’T do, may apply to his little 3-school district. But, they don’t apply to ours.
So please do us the favor and tell us which half of these things YOU get to choose.
(reprinted from #23,above)
The teachers do not pick the socio-economic condition of their students. (including ESL and single parent families)
The teachers do not pick what or if the students have had breakfast or lunch that day. (very important in a child’s ability to learn)
The teachers do not pick the classroom they teach in. (yes, even broom closets are being used as classrooms in crowded schools and science being taught in an arts class)
The teachers do not pick the condition of the school. ( some are literaly falling on their heads)
The teachers do not pick how many gang bangers and drug dealers are hanging around outside the school. (yes, many kids are preyed upon and forced to join gangs or are in mortal fear of them)
The teachers do not pick the books they will use. The teachers do not pick the course curriculum. (the books are too often either the cheapest or politically chosen, and usually from a list)
The teachers do not pick the hours the students will be taught. (often classes are early in the morning or late in the afternoon as schools split the attendance so service more kids)
The teachers do not pick the days the students will come to class. (obvious, they teach to the schedule)
The teachers do not pick who will decide and implement sanctions for disruptive behavior. (administrative function)
The teachers do not pick the standardized testing you want to use to compare them.
The teachers unions are involved in the schedule, also known as work hours. Also many of your things are set by school boards, elections for which the teachers unions are major players.
More importantly, the teachers DO pick their own quality, and tenure helps keep the lowest quality. As it is, thanks to the education degree requirements, teachers tend to come from the bottom third or quarter of college graduates.
Teachers unions also oppose merit pay for higher quality teachers.
Maybe we should just shoot the bottom quarter of all college graduates instead?
Fusion brings up all sorts of excuses, but it is that excuse-making culture which lets the problems perpetuate. Tougher discipline is opposed by the same people, and fighting a drug war.
We saw this in the exchange between Bill Maher and Michael Eric Dyson too.
http://vodpod.com/watch/1432197-michael-eric-dyson-vs-andrew-breitbart-on-bill-maher-show
From the Wall Street Journal:
The backstory: A year ago, the City of Brotherly Love made it illegal to talk about history for money in the city center without a license. Boulais and two fellow guides sued, claiming the rule violated their First Amendment rights.
In order to get a license, guides have to know the answers to 65% of 150 questions about the city’s historic sites. The city calls its law “an economic regulation” that has only an “incidental effect on speech.”
One way to end this is by issuing full value vouchers.
D.C. just started doing thisuntil very recently. Poor kids were going to the same school as Obama’s kids so, Congress is going to kill the DC vouchers & Obama agrees.
Roy Sachse is an outlier; if we overturned every regulation, law or safeguard because of one exceptional case, there will be no regulations, laws or safeguards for any segment of society.
Using an example like Roy is not justification to throw out an entire system of checks and balances.