Yep. Back when I was first hired (at an urban school district), hiring was done by merit. You got a score based on your college grades and student teacher evaluation. And the top scores got hired, period. By the way, that method was fully supported by the union leadership of the time.
Today there are still scores, but they are "adjusted" every which way to favor the candidates the district wants. And today's union leadership is just fine with that, because they are now liberal political toads, and not true labor leaders like in the past.
Still, I would encourage the young lady you talked about to continue looking for a good public school job! But nothing urban, please.
Private schools are nice (I taught in one for three years). But the benefits are light, and there is usually no pension. Plus you could be let go for no reason.
If you're teaching math and some big donor has a nephew who just got his math degree...poof...you're out of a job next year. That didn't happen to me, but I sure saw it happen to others.
This happened several years ago. The young lady in question has taught in various places since then (none being an urban district though).
My grandmother taught at a private school for half a century...and my father is five years short of hitting that mark himself, also at a private school. I forget pensions even exist....because you are right and they had/have no pension. But lots of people (like myself) have no pension these days. Frankly, debacles like Detroit lead me to believe pensions may not pay out as promised....and I wouldn’t use that as a differentiating factor in deciding public vs private. I do remember my dad worked (and still works) on one year contracts - a little disconcerting, but really not unlike much of the private sector, where you could go at any time.
Plus you could be let go for no reason
Any particular reason that teachers should have job protections that the rest of us don’t have?