[quote=EconProf]This is a very significant ruling that will have huge positive ramifications for public schools in California. At last, teachers can be evaluated and bounced if they are demonstrably awful. Being stuck with a bad teacher for a whole school year can do real damage to the students, who are usually the ones in poor and minority neighborhoods. The unions, and the tenure they support, is meant to protect the adults, not the children.[/quote]
I’m willing to make a bet with you, EconProf, that this will do very little, if anything, to improve the situation for students. The Privatization Movement is 100% behind this, and their ONLY goal is to improve profits for educational corporations…profits that will come from the reduced compensation for teachers.
There is NO EVIDENCE, whatsoever, that teachers’ unions negatively affect student outcomes.
Your taxes will not go down.
Student outcomes might improve slightly at first, but then will likely go back down, possibly below current levels, a few years after this has taken effect.
This change, if enacted, will result in fewer and fewer quality people who will be willing to spend 6+ years in college and take on this VERY challenging job…all to have their career hanging by a thread, dependent entirely upon the whims of administrators, politicians, and parents. This is not the kind of job where objective measures are used to determine whether or not one has done a good job (nor should it be, as the many problems with testing are brought to light); the evaluation of teachers is highly subjective and based on the emotions of parents, administrators, and politicians; which is why unions were necessary in the first place.
