Whose Fault Is It Anyway?
Critics of Governor Mitch Daniels and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett are having a field day with recent news that a number of teachers across Indiana are being laid off including one who got a teacher of the the year award.
What my friends tend to forget is that teacher layoffs are usually determined by what’s in the teacher’s contract that was negotiated by the teacher’s union and the school district. And which side do you think negotiated the clause that if layoffs are to occur, that they are done by seniority?
As much as I criticize schools, I honestly don’t think there is an administrator in his or her right mind who want to fire a good teacher who can can perform and gets good results over one who should have been sent to the teacher’s retirement home a long time ago.
If I had my way, I’d introduce legislation that would mandate any contract negotiated by any school district that receives state funding cannot include a provision that allows for layoffs by seniority alone. Why should the worst teachers be allowed to stay, while the good ones be forced look for another job?
That may sound like heresy in education circles but if anyone wants to blame someone for teachers losing their jobs, blame the people who negotiated that provision in the teachers’ contracts.
And we wonder why Indiana schools keep falling behind.
