Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s bill to eliminate tenure-style job protections for public school teachers died Thursday at the hands of the Republican-led Senate.
After delaying a decision on the contentious bill for eight days straight, the Senate voted 23 to 17 to send it back to committee, effectively killing it for the year.
Three Republicans joined all 20 Democrats in voting to recommit the bill, which has been vigorously opposed by the Virginia Education Association.
The move was a political defeat for McDonnell, who had made overhauling teacher contracts a key part of his education agenda.
“This bill does nothing but kick teachers in the teeth,” said Sen. Philip Puckett (D-Russell), a former teacher and principal.
Virginia’s teachers currently receive “continuing contracts,” which are almost always renewed barring unusual circumstances.
The governor’s bill would replaced continuing contracts with three-year contracts. At the end of every three years, an administrator could have let a teacher go without having to give a reason.
Had the bill passed, it would have given Virginia administrators among the broadest power in the nation to remove teachers from the classroom.
Sen. Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) spoke in favor of the measure during floor debate, saying it gave principals a necessary tool to fire bad teachers — or “lemons,” as Obenshain called them.
“We have great public schools across Virginia,” he said. But “if you believe that every teacher in Virginia is a great teacher, you’re wrong.”
Every teacher in the classroom isn’t great. However, I expect that if you start stacking up incompetent teachers and incompetent legislators, the legislator list would be longer. Most legislators couldn’t do a teacher’s job. While Obenshain is bashing teachers as lemons, I wonder how his constituents would rate him?
He obviously is totally unknowledgeable about the calibur of administrator in the state of Virginia. They don’t need any more power. Some are good, many not so good. Most are very fearful for their jobs. Furthermore, most of them need to rotate back in the classroom every three years, stay for a year and then come back out. The principals have all the tools they need to fire incompetent teachers. Most are simply too lazy to do it unless ordered to do so.
This rule is important if you have teachers in your family. George’s daughter is a teacher. The importance here is not being turned out to pasture if money in her jurisdiction starts drying up.
There is always the fear that the older teachers will be let go and a bunch of green horns might be hired to replace them for half the price. Think about that in your own company.
You still cannot tell me why teachers should have added job security compared to other professions. It is certainly is not because they have more talent than other professions. It certainly is not to ensure that vital research is carried out without the threat of being fired. Why do you think that retaining teachers is more important than being able to lay them off when the money dries up?
I don’t see anything wrong with replacing more experienced teachers with less experienced ones if the more junior teachers are just as good. In some cases, the older teachers tend to be more mediocre because they get too comfortable. In the non-government sector, people are not retained just because they have seniority. If they do not add value compared to their less experienced, lower paid counterparts, they are definitely vulnerable for replacement during the next the dreaded “reorganization”. It should be the same for teachers.
@Kelly,
Plenty of non-govt. jobs retain more senior people, Kelly. Where have you been? In fact, it is standard practice. That’s sort of where the expression ‘seniority’ comes from.
yes, I have told you. You just don’t agree with me. That is your priviledge. Continuing to repeat myself isn’t going to convince you a bit more. You obviously think you know more about it than I do. It simply isn’t a good idea to give administration who has often been kicked upstairs that much power. Additionally, I don’t know how you could determine how ‘good’ first year Susie Jones is. It’s mighty tempting to inflate a first year salary to attract college seniors. Anything looks good to them. Send Mrs. Crab and Mr. Hickory off to pasture and replace them with Suzie Jones and Jessica Wannabe. Save the system some money.
I guess you don’t have kids. Most greenhorn teachers need a few years to get up to speed. A great deal is asked of our teachers and most just don’t walk into the job as experts. Now, in defense of first year teachers–most of them have an enthusiasm and zeal for their job that can never be replicated in subsequent years. Yes, teachers do suffer from burn out. That’s probably why its a good idea not to ride them like rented mules so they burn out. That’s what happened when the public keeps wanting more and more and tells good people that they need to do more and more. There’s a lot of that going around including right in our own neck of the woods.
Sorry public, a week of chips and dip in in the lounge during Teacher Appreciation Week doesn’t really cut it when you tell teachers year after year that there isn’t money for raises and that they just need to work a little harder. There is a national epidemic of ‘you just aren’t good enough.’ Perhaps you don’t feel it because you have no connection to the industry.
You keep and retain good teachers in the jurisdiction by giving them some job security. You don’t want to be the training grounds for Fairfax County where the pay is a lot better and the retirement is MUCH better. Lousy people shouldn’t get to that continuing contract anyway. Why do they? Generally laziness on the part of aministrators. There is enough attrition in most systems that good inexperienced teachers are retained.
The fact that this bill even passed the house sent another strong message that existing teachers just weren’t good enough and that they needed to work harder. In fact, the bill’s original sponsor said as much on the floor of the general assembly. As an aside, I had sent my cousin a biology teacher in the Valley, something on this bill. The sponsor was from her area. She emailed me back that their principal had actually broken down in faculty meeting earlier that week. Why? He had to kick teachers in the teeth just another time giving them the local news. She said she felt sorrier for him than she did herself.