That has to be one of the most misleading bill titles ever cooked up by the Pennsylvania Republican legislature, already famous for its half-truths, untruths, and outright lies.
The bill would have ended the seniority system for teacher lay-offs, basing layoffs instead on standardized tests (which Republicans in the state legislature have also criticized in the past) and classroom evaluations by principals, who may visit a classroom once or twice a semester.
So let's think of a school board strapped for cash, and in this state, that's a high number of school boards. Which teachers will be terminated–the senior teachers with the highest salaries, or the newly hired teachers who receive the lowest salaries? It's obvious, isn't it?
Last week Governor Wolf vetoed the bill.
It's not obvious. My daughter-in-law who last year was given an award as the best music teacher in the state may possibly lose her job because of declining enrollment in her district. The other music teacher has seniority so will keep her job even though the administration has reduced her music classes to 2 a day with the rest of her day spent in study halls, etc. ( you know how it is impossible to get rid of a "bad" teacher).
ReplyDeleteI am sure there are many cases like your daughter-in-law, but I think on the whole teachers with experience generally do pretty well, and I don't trust school boards to make decisions based on merit. I have the feeling they will use economics to guide their decisions.
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