Dear Members:

This is a follow-up to last weeks meeting.

Last week, teachers faced an unprecedented attack on our employment rights when State Senator Alex Padilla’s bill to gut due process rights in teacher dismissals came before the State Assembly for a committee vote.  We’re happy to report that we were successful in fighting it off thanks to the efforts of local teachers who showed up to speak against the bill. The following report is from Ken Poppers of Elk Grove Education Association:

First, I would like to thank the EGEA and SCTA members that attended the CTA training and then went on to the capitol building to participate in the hearing.

The hearing was scheduled for 1:30, but because of delays due to floor sessions in both the state senate and assembly, some folks had to leave because of other commitments, myself among them.
Secondly, the professionalism, skills and knowledge of the CTA legislative team were very impressive.  These folks, many of whom are classroom teachers, are true advocates for those of us in the trenches.

Senate bill 1530, proposed by Senator Alex Padilla, was a bad idea, which only got as far as it did because of legislative courtesy in the state senate.  Majority party members will generally back the efforts of their fellow party colleagues because they know that many bad ideas will be killed in the other house of the legislature.  

SB 1530 would’ve changed the dismissal process in ways that possibly could’ve created a system where site and district office administrators would have a way to dismiss teachers that are considered troublesome for reasons other than that of true misconduct.  
The decision of the administrative law judge would only be advisory to a school board, rather than the current system of a 3-person panel, which is binding.  To put that in perspective in the recent Sacramento City Unified layoff hearings the ALJ found the “Priority Schools” skipping was not legal.  SCUSD’s district administration and board chose to reject the ALJ’s finding and went ahead and skipped more junior teachers.  This resulted in many experienced teachers, including the SCUSD Teacher of the Year to be laid off.  That story, which conveniently leaves out the district’s layoff skips, went viral, as misreported by Channel 10.

The best example for misuse of the changes proposed in SB 1530 I heard was that in a case of a messy divorce/custody battle an estranged spouse could accuse his/her former partner of child neglect.  The district could then move to dismiss the teacher based on this charge.  

I am including a couple of links to news stories regarding the defeat of this bill.  Pay attention to how the news media continues to blame CTA for the failings of individuals and administration. The teacher that started all this could’ve been dismissed under current law, but LAUSD did not follow through.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/29/4598503/california-assembly-bill-to-alter.html
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_20965275/defeat-calif-teacher-bill-shows-union-powe

It is imperative that you engage in this process, none of us are immune and what happens in the capitol affects you.

Thank you,

SCTA

SCTA Organizing Committee Action Alert

Join CTA at the Capitol to Help Defeat SB 1530

SCTA asks members to help in the effort to defeat SB 1530, proposed legislation that would seriously erode teacher due process protections.     This is an important time for teachers to stand together against such ill-conceived measures and in doing so send a strong message that we expect our elected representatives to reject anti-teacher, anti-labor legislation.  We ask that you join your California Teachers Association legislative team in defending our profession.

Bill Background:

SB 1530 (Padilla) was introduced in the wake of the scandal inLos Angelessurrounding serious criminal allegations against three teachers in the LA Unified School District. Unfortunately, the bill would divert lawmakers’ and the public’s attention from the cascading failures of a school district’s management to use current law to protect children from employees charged with improper conduct.  SB 1530 ignores the breakdown in responsibility by the superintendent and officials of the LA Unified School District to properly investigate and report alleged misconduct to the state licensing agency, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing.  That credentialing body has the power to revoke an educator’s credential, preventing that employee from working in any public school in the state.

Instead, SB 1530 would:

• Severely undermine certificated educators’ ability to get a fair hearing when accused of misconduct and erode the integrity of the teacher dismissal process. 
• Eliminate timelines for notice. In particular, it would allow employers to send out a notice to dismiss during the summer when many certificated personnel are not in town. It would also grant districts the discretion to submit old information about prior issues of misconduct as evidence related to current charges.  Current law prohibits both practices as patently unfair.  .
• Sharply change the role of the Committee on Professional Competence by eliminating teachers from the panel altogether and render the decision of a neutral administrative law judge as only advisory to the local governing board.  This significant slap against teacher protection for a fair hearing is CTA’s most urgent concern.

CTA conversations with the Senator Padilla to improve the bill in these key areas have simply gone nowhere.

The bill’s supporters assert that eliminating teacher due process will make dismissal hearings both cost-effective and efficient. In point of fact, it will open teachers to dismissal at the whim of local administrators, who have shown themselves woefully ill-equipped to protect students or teachers.  It also will almost most certainly lead to more expensive lawsuits.

If you need more information on this bill, visit http://capwiz.com/nea/ca/issues/alert/?alertid=61337256

Ah, summer!   As most teachers know, summer is the time for catching up on reading, and your SCTA Organizing Committee has prepared this list of suggested titles to learn about important education policy debates that are currently affecting us, and which could affect our profession in the coming years.

Diane Ravitch

First, if you have not yet read Diane Ravitch’s monumental work on the state of public education in this era of corporate reform, Death and Life of the Great American School System,  now is the chance.   The book is available in an expanded and revised paperwork edition and for Kindles and other e-readers.

Dr. Ravitch recently started her own blog, dianeravitch.net, which has quickly emerged as an important daily read for anyone interested in “a better education for all.”  Her range of topics is impressive, but always she writes with a passion for the teaching profession,  a respect for teachers and an unflagging commitment to a well-rounded education for all children.  Do check it out.

Tenure and Seniority

Our district made some significant changes to layoff procedures this year that are affecting many of our members. Seniority-based pay and layoffs are a bedrock of union rights, but many may wonder why they are so essential.

The NEA has good basic piece explaining “what tenure is and what tenure is not.”

Teacher Marc Epstein writes in the Huffington Post in defense of seniority, including a bit of a history lesson.  While his article focuses on New York,  Epstein reminds us that seniority pre-dates unions and owes its origins to civil service reforms and efforts to remove arbitrariness, patronage, graft and corruption from hiring and firing practices.

For more on this topic, including a list of articles from different authors presenting a variety of views, please see Larry Ferlazzo’s list of The Best Articles For Helping To Understand Both Why Teacher Tenure Is Important & The Reasons Behind Seniority-Based Layoffs.

By the way, Larry Ferlazzo is a SCTA member from Luther Burbank High School, who is a considered one of the most prominent and prolific teacher-bloggers in the nation; his blog is called  Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day.

Priority Schools, So-Called “Failing Schools” and School Improvement

Questions have come up about the priority school program in our district. This list of articles, again from Larry Ferlazzo, gives a nice overview of the school reform plans that the federal government requires: The Best Resources For Learning About The Four School Improvement Grant Models.  In our district, Oak Ridge Elementary is the only school that the state has designated for this reform and is eligible for this particular grant program.   Some of the articles here reach more broadly and challenge the “shut it down” mentality for so-called “failing schools” that calls for dismissing teachers, closing schools and converting them to charters.  These articles offer suggestions for school improvement that are rooted instead in community engagement and teacher professionalism.

Race to the Top

Under Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the federal government has been moving its reform efforts towards a program called Race to the Top. The program requires states to apply and compete for federal education funds,  but to qualify states have to enact a number of very onerous and costly reforms. California Governor Jerry Brown and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson figured that it would cost the state more money they it would ever get to do this, and declined to apply for the Race to the Top program.     The federal government, however, has opened the program up for individual school districts or consortia of districts to apply directly without going through their state officials.    Our district may be going down this road in the future, and it is a dangerous one that should be avoided.

Education Week has  a  good comprehensive piece  on what districts must do to qualify for Race to the Top funding. (Interestingly, the article headline refers to the program as a “contest.”)

Sacramento’s own Kate Lenox, of the Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education, recently penned this warning about to the Sacramento City Unified School District that the Race to the Top grant “may not be worth its cost.”

For more much more on Race to the Top, Larry Ferlazzo again has it covered:  The Best Resources On “Race To The Top.”

~  Thanks to Alice Mercer for compiling this list.