Posted on 09/10/2006 8:55:16 AM PDT by SmithL
Imagine a company president being ordered by the board of directors to hire any misfit who knocks on the door.
It's a crazy scenario -- but it's exactly the way many California school districts operate when an unsuccessful teacher is quietly edged out of a school. As long as the teacher agrees to leave voluntarily, union rules require the principal of any other school in the district with an opening to hire that teacher.
The practice, common in large and mid-size urban districts, is so reviled by principals that they've given it a derogatory name.
"It's called the Dance of the Lemons," said state Sen. Jack Scott, a Pasadena Democrat who wrote a bill to ban the practice in low-scoring schools and to limit it in others.
Scott, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, got the Democrat-controlled Legislature to pass his bill despite opposition from two traditional party allies: the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers.
The bill was approved 33-1 by the Senate in May and 59-12 by the Assembly last month. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto the bill.
If the governor signs it as expected, California will become the first state in the nation to rein in the practice.
"There are a lot of states watching what's happening in California, and I think it'll have significant ramifications nationwide," said Michelle Rhee, chief executive officer of the New Teacher Project, a national nonprofit group that worked on the Scott bill.
Barbara Kerr, president of the California Teachers Association, called the bill "insulting to teachers,"
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Arnie will sign this, after all, the unions won't suddenly decide that they love him if he vetoes it.
This one looks like a winner.
The bill also really had "bipartisan" support, unlike so many we read about.
SB 1655:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=sb_1655&sess=CUR&house=B&author=scott
Once again the TEACHERS UNION have managed to denigrate the education of our young. Their rules suck if one of my employees wasn't cutting it I didn't foist him off on someone else I SH&*CANNED his sorry ass.
Nobody on the planet appears to be guaranteed a job, except teachers and judges. Time to set things right.
If the people of NJ won't clean up the corruption, how can it be done? The people I know who moveds here from NJ don't know how things should be and assume that mqachine politics are the rule everywhere. They don't understand or believe in democracy, but they do believe in the Mafia.
Teachers unions always argue noone can evaluate them even though everyone in America knows there are good an bad teachers. Everyone else has performance reviews, so don't buy that.
I agree. People in NJ vote in THE worst politicians ever. TOTAL Democratic control for 75 years. It's all pay offs and favors. Menendez went to my school as a kid. He's the worst of the worst . Believe me my friend as a Republican I live dangerously as a teacher in NJ . I refuse to go to the political fund raising dinners and I'm "on the list" as not going. In my case tenure is the only thing between me and unemployment.
Somewhere there is a pig at 10,000 ft on a glide path for final approach.
"See , there is more to this all . people forget , teaching in public schools is VERY political ."
The first thing we need to do is to start requiring background investigations for teachers. Serious background investigations, like the cooks at the White House get.
Then make political extremism a disqualifying factor, after defining the extreme part of the spectrum as that lying to the left of Ronald Reagan and the right of Pat Buchanan.
Yesterday I got into a short conversation with a 27 year old coworker about the state of education. He seems to be competent at his job but then he has a Batchelor of Arts degree and is working at a job that only requires High School. I asked him to name the three branches of government, he responded rapidly with Legislative and Executive but hemmed and hawed before coming up with Judicial. I then asked him to describe the functions of each, he didn't even try. I then asked him what year the American civil war began, he had no idea. I then asked him to name the century, he responded after some thought with "the 1800s?" in a questioning tone. I told him yes and the year was 1860, I then asked what year it ended and he scratched his head for awhile and guessed "1874". I told him that was wrong and asked if he ever heard of the battle of Hastings, he hadn't. He told me that he had learned all that stuff but had forgotten it, I told him that I had to know all that to graduate from the seventh grade and it was so drummed into me that I can never forget it. I then asked what form of government we are supposed to have and he replied predictably that it is supposed to be a Democracy.
How can there be any hope for this country when University graduates have no inkling of how the country came to exist or what the government is even supposed to be about?
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