Health & Fitness
Keep effective teachers, not just the ones who have been at it the longest...
Keep effective teachers in the classroom; LIFO lay-off decision places our children at risk.
Imagine you are 3rd year teacher - your second career, maybe you did a stint in the military or in a corporate office - but teaching is your passion. You actually love pesky, petulant teenagers, they seem to like you too, respect you even. After an especially challenging yet rewarding day you were just thinking how fortunate you are to get pay to do what you love, particularly since you know that the pile in your mailbox is mostly bills and junk mail, letters of appreciation from grateful students and their parents won't come until christmas. But, there is strange, official looking piece of mail from your local Board of Ed.
What could it be, maybe you were nominated for teacher of the year? You just had a great evaluation, your principal said tenure will be a breeze next year. A non-Renewal letter! Likely budget cutbacks next school year. Cannot offer/guarantee your position at at this time! You and several hundred teachers across the State got non-renewal notices this year - all based on the fact that you were among the most recently hired by your school district.
Yes these are tough times and budget cuts are inevitable. But why would we choose to reduce the number of teachers - selecting from among only those teachers who do not have seniority? How about selecting from among those who have the worst performance ratings? If you have a kid in school, you know at least one teacher that most parents complain about. If you are a teacher or principal, you know who those teachers are that are the least effective with their students. If you are the union representative in your school - you know which of your teachers do not belong there. So why do they survive round after round of layoffs? Why will we be giving them more students this year to fail? Yes we want experienced teachers, but more importantly we want effective teachers in front of each of our students, each and every day. Call your Senator, write your legislator, your Board of Education and tell them to end seniority-based layoffs today!
