Saturday, June 14, 2014

California Teacher Unions and Recent Legal Ruling

California Teacher Unions and Recent Legal Ruling

A California court decided to change the way teachers are dismissed in three areas:

1.     Ending of the process of laying off teachers that relies only on seniority,
2.     Taking away extra job safeguards that are not available to other school and state employees, and
3.     Eliminating the tenure process as it now exists; this process starts at 18 months when teachers are either terminated or become tenured with strong job security.


The present system has been in place with the passage of state laws and the negotiation of union contracts.  For reasons that only this particular judge can explain, he has changed the process used in California schools.  It sounds like there has already been a procedure in place to eliminate of sub-standard teachers.  It may be a complicated and long process but that can be a good thing.  There are times when teachers need protection from over-zealous administrators who want to do away with teachers who do not agree with them in any number of areas.  If you have ever faced down administrators, as I have as a high school teacher, you know that it is good to have help in your corner.  Taking away rights is not the way to a better education system in this country.

Dallas ISD Home Rule Initiative - Some Thoughts

Texas – Dallas ISD Home Rule Initiative

Why is Dallas trying to go the charter school/district route?  The given reasons from the groups trying to do this are to get around some of the state regulations that supposedly inhibit learning and teaching in the district.  This option was included in state regulations to give districts the chance to go the charter school route.  There are a series of steps to follow to use this method and because of that this option has not been tried in Texas.  So Dallas leaders are trying a grand experiment.  But is it really an experiment or rather a way to take over the district for their own reasons?

The district has a large budget, approximately $ 1.5 billion.  They also have a large number of teachers and personnel, around 10,000 teachers and 10,000 support personnel.  What will happen to all these real people?  My guess is that there will be a reduction in personnel in the district with a proportionate decrease in expenses.  Plus, many experienced teachers will either leave or retire which is probably one of the goals of this experiment.  The local teacher unions, really associations since Texas is a right-to-work state with no contracts between districts and unions, have gone to court to slow this process down.


Who will control all these funds currently used for the district?  What expenses will be cut so other projects can be implemented?  Who will make decisions concerning the budget and personnel?  These are all questions that need to be addressed before this really big change is undertaken in Dallas.