great email I got regarding questions/attacks on teachers

On the Defensive – The QUESTIONS

•Why is seniority the determining factor in job retention? Doesn’t it just protect
ineffective teachers?

ü No teacher or union is interested in retaining consistently ineffective
teachers. There is a process that districts and their administrators must
follow for remediating ineffective teaching, and if teacher improvement is
not the result of the intervention, there is a defined procedure for getting
rid of an ineffective teacher. While it is true that a teacher has the right
to a fair hearing, ineffective teachers can be removed; it simply requires
administrators to do their job.

ü If not seniority, then what are the options? Left to their own devices, it’s
pretty clear that removing seniority protections (last in – first out) would open
the door to a wide range of abuses by districts. One such abuse would be
the removal of the most senior (and hence the highest paid) teachers as a
cost saving method.

•Why do teachers continue to receive a raise in the form of step increment, when a contract expires?

ü In the early 80’s, a New York State court upheld a lower court’s decision that
since teachers (and all public employees) were barred from striking, all terms
and conditions of employment of an expired contract would stay in effect
until a new settlement was reached. This would encourage both parties to
negotiate in good faith. The merits of this decision were determined to be
so obvious that it was soon after proposed (and passed) as legislation known
as the Tri-borough Amendment to the Taylor Law. Since a salary schedule is
part of a contract, and since step/increment is part of that schedule, teachers
automatically advance. Any attempt by a district to deny step during an
expired contract would be met with heavy opposition by NYSUT.

•The new APPR regulations are calling for at least 40% of a teacher’s evaluation
to be based on student performance, despite the fact that many nationally
recognized statisticians and education forums concede that it is nearly impossible to accurately isolate, measure, and quantify the effect that one teacher has on a student’s academic performance/progress. Despite this fact many law firms
that represent school boards are urging them to demand that when a teacher
exercises his/her right to due process in a dismissal procedure for ineffective
teaching, the ultimate decision regarding the dismissal would rest with the superintendent. That’s like saying if a defendant wants to appeal a decision, the final arbiter will be the prosecuting attorney.

• Why do teachers have a publicly funded defined-benefit pension and health insurance coverage? I don’t.

ü That’s a shame. I think you should have a defined-benefit pension plan
through your employer, as well as health insurance. But just because you
don’t have these items doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have them. Anymore than
you shouldn’t have a second vacation home because I don’t have one!

ü FACT: Independent studies of pension plans consistently conclude that
defined-benefit plans are cheaper to fund than defined-contribution plans.

ü FACT: The people who are pushing a change from defined-benefit to
defined-contribution plans are actually big-money managers who would like
nothing more than to get their hands on billions of dollars that will generate
millions of dollars in commission fees.

ü FACT: A public employee’s pension and health insurance are not gifts; they
are earned benefits of employment. For people who went into teaching, a
secure pension and health insurance (see below) were two trade-offs for
choosing a field where there was minimal opportunity for advancement, lower wages over the course of a career, and a decelerated pace to highest salary.

ü FACT: Not only do I contribute to my own health insurance, but I also pay co-payments and deductibles.

Re: great email I got regarding questions/attacks on teachers

Thanks for posting this. One of the things that makes me craziest is the idea that seniority protects ineffective teachers -- why is the assumption always that the MORE EXPERIENCED teachers are the MORE INEFFECTIVE ones??? Makes NO sense to me. Yes, new teachers are often full of enthusiasm -- but without mentoring from more experienced teachers, what will keep them there?

Ugh, sorry. Like I said, I'm really glad you posted this. It just (obviously) reminded me of some of the annoying things people keep saying.