Georgia should seize the chance to change the tenure system and fire bad teachers.
By Robert Enlow
For those who haven’t seen the documentary “Waiting for Superman,” there is a portion of Davis Guggenheim’s film devoted to a place in New York City public schools known as “The Rubber Room.”
It is a place where teachers who were accused of crimes, academic or criminal, and who could not be removed from their jobs were sent to wait in limbo, sometimes for years.
That’s because, thanks to the over-the-top contracts bargained for by the teachers unions and agreed to by school boards, it’s very nearly impossible to fire a teacher in this country.
It’s called tenure and it means that teachers who are accused of crimes or incompetence cannot be dismissed without undergoing a lengthy dismissal process that can cost taxpayers millions of dollars. It is an archaic benefit that defies common sense and one that most of us in the private or non-profit sector don’t enjoy.
We may soon see in Atlanta Public Schools the reality of teacher tenure policies playing out in the cheating scandal.
Interim Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll Davis should be commended for issuing an ultimatum to 179 APS teachers and principals involved in the Atlanta testing scandal. He said either resign or be fired.
But the teachers unions are stepping in to fight these firings, potentially protecting a worker’s interests over the welfare of students.
Government employees of all stripes — including educators — should not have due process rights to appeal a dismissal that are any different than you or I who work in the private sector. If they lose their jobs, they have the right to go to court or take their case to the EEOC to prove their case if they were wrongly dismissed.
Taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for extended pay nor legal bills for educators nor any other government employee trying to fight to keep his or her job.
Georgia had an opportunity to prevent tenure abuse when Roy Barnes was governor. At his urging, the General Assembly adopted a law that removed tenure for all new teachers and made it easier to fire them. The move created a firestorm among teachers and contributed to Barnes’ re-election loss in 2002. When Gov. Sonny Perdue took office, the Republicans quickly gave in and teacher tenure was restored.
The interim Atlanta superintendent knows this history and knows that he has a tough road ahead of him. Note how the superintendent phrased it to the press: Educators found to have cheated “are not going to be put in front of our children again.” He did not say they would immediately be fired for cause and removed from the payroll or suspended without pay pending review, as would happen in virtually every other business and nonprofit sector in America.
What’s unfortunate, especially for kids, is that this case could take a long time and cost a lot of money. The teachers unions and a cadre of lawyers will be arguing each of the cases before the Professional Standards Commission and then to the courts.
No one is arguing that teachers don’t deserve due process. They do. Everyone does. It is a right guaranteed us by the Constitution. But, there have to be reasonable, common-sense limits to how far we as a society will go to protect someone’s job. I definitely draw the line at hurting children and students.
As this case of 179 Atlanta teachers accused of cheating — and potentially more elsewhere in the state — plays out there are two things to keep in mind: Georgia should follow the lead of states such as Indiana and Florida, which have embraced common-sense reforms of teacher tenure and stopped the inane practice of laying off teachers based on seniority, not competence. Second, policymakers should always keep the greatest victims of this enormous cheating scandal — the students — at the forefront of every discussion. What does it say to our children if teachers are found guilty, yet keep their jobs or, as is often the case, are moved to another district?
Unfortunately, it says we value students less than we should.
Robert Enlow is president and CEO of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice.
Change the ‘culture of fear,’ but don’t punish the many good educators.
By Randi Weingarten and Verdaillia Turner
Of the thousands of words written about the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal, student Sebastian Mathis summed it up the best.
“They’re cheating us,” said Sebastian, who just finished the eighth grade at Parks Middle School, a campus investigators flagged for some of the worst cheating.
Those of us who work in public education may disagree on some things. But a fundamental point of agreement has to be that cheating is never acceptable.
Results matter. But results should never be separated from integrity.
A yearlong investigation found that principals and teachers in nearly four dozen city schools may have cheated on standardized tests by helping students or changing answers on exams.
These are serious accusations. But it would be a mistake to focus on the tiny percentage of educators accused of cheating while ignoring the environment that fostered their behavior.
Public education in many places has become an environment in which testing trumps teaching, and meeting test targets trumps learning.
But in Atlanta, this practice was taken to a different level, which investigators called a “culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation” that silenced and punished whistle-blowers.
It was a culture that demanded test score gains at any cost and put testing targets as the be-all and end-all.
We take little solace in the fact that the Atlanta Federation of Teachers was among the first to flag possible testing improprieties, filing a complaint with the superintendent’s office in December 2005.
Sadly, the concerns from teachers and others were either ignored or dismissed out of hand.
One of the most important lessons we can convey to our students is that there are no shortcuts to success.
There is no easy way to master algebra, to grasp the beauty of great literature or understand the complex principles of physics.
It takes hard work, discipline and commitment.
Every day, thousands of Atlanta teachers embody those qualities. They stay up late to grade papers. They buy classroom supplies with money out of their own pockets. They remain after school to help a struggling youngster get up to speed.
Even in the toxic environment the report described, thousands of teachers worked hard every day to do right by children.
The Atlanta Public Schools has about 6,000 employees, half of them teachers. Of them, fewer than 180 — less than 3 percent — have been implicated in the investigation.
That small number of teachers and administrators who may have succumbed to cheating or turned a blind eye to the practice undercut the good efforts of the vast majority of educators.
Sadly, as Sebastian noted, they may have cheated the very children they professed to help.
It would be easy to wallow in sadness and anger. But that won’t help our kids.
Students who attend the district’s three year-round elementary schools have already returned to class, and the rest of the district’s students will be back at their desks come fall.
A child gets only one chance to begin kindergarten or experience his or her senior year of high school. We have to deliver the great education he or she needs and deserves.
So it is time to begin to heal and move forward. The process, either internal or in the courts, will deal with those accused of wrongdoing.
The rest of us — teachers, parents, school officials, elected officials and other civic leaders — have to find a way to create an environment that fosters real teaching and learning, not just hitting test-score targets.
We need to make sure that our children get the best education possible.
No excuses. No shortcuts.
Otherwise, we cheat our children all over again.
Randi Weingarten is the president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Verdaillia Turner is the president of the Georgia Federation of Teachers.
