Many Democrats Prioritizing Black Families Over Teachers Unions

Five teacher hiring and firing laws bit the dust in California this week. In a major blow to teachers unions, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu’s ruling struck down teacher tenure, while freeing districts from spending hundreds of thousands to fire teachers and from having to fire newly-hired teachers first during layoffs.

The ruling is being applauded as a major civil rights victory, with Judge Treu comparing it with historic desegregation battle Brown v. Board of Education. Treu said both cases addressed “a student’s fundamental right to equality of the educational experience.” The data could not be clearer that the union-controlled public education monopoly disproportionately harms black and Latino students. But legal pushback on the issue puts the Democratic party in a tight spot. Party leaders can continue ignoring or thwarting reform efforts aimed at ensuring every child has access to a quality education. Or, they can jump on board the fight for equality, and alienate the teachers unions, historically among their most powerful allies. More and more Democrats are choosing the latter, putting them on the right side of history, but the wrong side of a very powerful lobby.

In his ruling Judge Treu described the evidence that California’s teacher hiring and firing laws harm poor and minority students “compelling.”

“Indeed, it shocks the conscience,” Treu wrote. At the trial, experts testified that teacher tenure laws, along with “first in, last out” protections for senior educators keep bad teachers in their jobs. And, unsurprisingly, districts usually place failing teachers in predominantly black and Hispanic schools. California’s black students are 43 percent more likely than whites to be taught by a failing teacher. Latino students are 68 percent more likely. Judge Treu ruled that this situation violates those students’ constitutional right to an equal education.

Getting stuck with even one bad teacher has devastating consequences going forward. Harvard Prof. Thomas Kane testified at the trial. He pointed out that a student assigned to a grossly ineffective math teacher loses nearly a full year of learning per year compared to a student assigned to a teacher of average effectiveness. Harvard Prof. Raj Chetty testified as well, showing research that a student with a grossly ineffective teacher for even one year loses $50,000 in lifetime earnings compared to a student assigned to an average teacher.

Many Democrats are coming around to the reality of the situation, and are standing up for poor and minority students. Politico reports that many high-profile Democrats have broken with the party on education reform agenda items such as charter schools, standardized testing, and teacher evaluation and accountability.

This follows work at the grassroots level from groups like Democrats for Education Reform and The Education Trust, two non-profits which have for years calling for reform to close the achievement gap between white and minority students, and rightly pointed to teacher union obstructionism as a prime reason so many efforts at public education reform have, until recently, gotten nowhere.

Even President Obama supports charters and accountability. His Education Secretary Arne Duncan supported the ruling. “Millions of young people in America … are disadvantaged by laws, practices and systems that fail to identify and support our best teachers and match them with our neediest students,” Duncan said, calling the ruling “a mandate to fix these problems.”

Rules that protect bad teachers from firing are common across the country, not just in California. According to New York’s school boards association, the average proceeding to remove even one incompetent teacher extends for 830 days and costs taxpayers $313,000. So teachers are far more likely to be moved to failing schools than fired. And these schools tend to be filled with black and Latino kids. The problem entrenches itself as those teachers stay in the system longer, where they are then protected by seniority. Not only does this keep a failing teacher in the classroom, but it makes it impossible for schools to hire new, more effective teachers.

The suit was filed by a group called Students Matter, made up of a group of 9 student plaintiffs, and backed by a Silicon Valley millionaire. They are considering similar lawsuits in Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and elsewhere.

Opposition to teacher tenure is as commonplace as it is common sense. But legislative reform has been nigh-on impossible, thanks to pressure from teachers unions on lawmakers to maintain their legal protections. It’s no surprise, then, that reform has required the courts to get involved.

However, striking down hiring and firing laws will likely improve California’s public education system by flushing out poor-quality teachers and making room for better ones. This will likely energize Democratic families frustrated by failing schools to demand action from their legislators. Then lawmakers will have to choose: Help struggling families get the same quality public education as their better-off peers, or continue protecting teachers unions from competition and accountability? It’s an uneviable position, born from a disgusting history of pandering to and prioritizing labor at the expense of society’s most vulnerable. Let’s hope they do the right thing.

... because even working at Starbucks is preferable to being assaulted by a little gangster and learning that no one is going to do anything about it.

Meanwhile; in Indianapolis...

Paddling, Taylor said, was part of teaching back then. And it was effective at controlling bad behavior.

“Sometimes that’s what had to happen,” she said. “I always told the students ‘I expect you to behave and if you don’t, well if I paddle you once, I won’t have to again.’ ”

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2014/06/15/longtime-ips-teacher-celebrates-th-birthday/10556101/

Any and all attempts to force good teachers into black or Hispanic schools will fail. Good teachers will want to teach students who want to learn, and they do not want to (nor will they) teach violent, rude, brutal Urban Ferals.

Nor do they want to have their car keyed, be beaten by students, be raped by students, be killed by students, ad nauseam.

When minority students acquire the student behaviors of successful white students, they can be taught with some success.

HOWEVER ! ! - given the IQ disparities between black and Hispanic students and white students, to expect black/Hispanic scores to reach the white scores is to ask the teachers to do the impossible.

When professional race card players (most if not all Democrats) say they will accomplish anything that will result in black/Hispanic academic test score equality with white scores, they assure the cheating made infamous in the Atlanta, GA school system.

Teachers are a cohort enriching themselves improperly because they take their salary knowing they can’t educate the “students”.

Taking a job which one knows one can’t accomplish is also commonly known as fraud.

Sorry, but teachers are frauds improperly enriching themselves.

Had they, as a group, discussed these issues I would support them. As it it, I hold they should be deal;t with as the frauds they really are.

How about chopping salaries, removing pensions & bennies?

“But, the Lil’ darlins’ will be dealing drugs if they are not in school” is the commie/union whine.

Sorry, they are dealing drugs in the halls as I type.

The Pooblic Skrewl Collective is beyond repair - time to start anew.

I suggest Google search for “We Test And How” - Carry_Okie’s perspective on the Hives of teh Collective.

;-)

This ruling may make it harder for incompetent teachers to keep their jobs, but I don't see how it hurts the unions per se. The unions will just have different members paying dues.

Also, this decision is a bad precedent. Just because this judge doesn't like the results of the challenged laws, he decides they're unconstitutional. Based on reasoning like this, any judge can do anything.

I’m not sure any mere moral could make a dent with some of these inner city students. Does that mean these teachers are frauds for trying? That’s too extreme for me....it is still their time and effort. Many, many people get paid for merely showing up...not just teachers. Maybe truth to power would be to change their titles from “teacher” to “babysitter”. But I’m sure that would be considered damaging to everyone’s self esteem....can’t have that.

Their are fundamentally three tiers of students:

The better students are not taught so much as guided and engaged. The ones in the middle are taught in the conventional sense. The ones at the bottom are warehoused until they’re “done”—if you’re lucky, they learn enough of the three Rs to function in society.

From a student perspective, much of this is self selection. A bad teacher can potentially cause a student to go from an upper tier to a lower one. Conversely, a good teacher can cause a bad student to go from a lower tier to a higher one. But these are exceptions to the rule.

"Their are fundamentally three tiers of students: The better students are not taught so much as guided and engaged. The ones in the middle are taught in the conventional sense. The ones at the bottom are warehoused until they’re “done”—if you’re lucky, they learn enough of the three Rs to function in society."

Well said. Many of those in the middle have the inherent ability to be in the top tier but lack consistent effort. All can be taught, but methods and expectations have to be adjusted.

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