Michael Hiltzik is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times who sees through the spin and illusion surrounding the Vergara decision.
The ruling will not change the material condition of any student. It will not reduce class size or produce more funding for the state’s ill-funded schools.
He writes:
“Critics of teacher unions maintain that they’re entrenched interests that block needed reforms. But they don’t have anything like the deadening effect on education of the fans of ventures like Students Matter and the Vergara lawsuit. …By some reckonings, the biggest threat to real progress in our schools is Arne Duncan. The education secretary has bought hook, line and sinker the argument that the key to pedagogical competitiveness for America is to equip every child with a laptop or tablet.
“As we’ve pointed out before, this is a policy that benefits no one but the shareholders of Apple Inc. The company has stood foursquare with Duncan in his fatuous technology campaign, which is likely to impoverish the neediest school districts by diverting their scarce resources into wasteful hardware while skimping on–here’s a surprise!–teachers.
“You want an example? Look no further than the Los Angeles Unified School District, where Supt. John Deasy has presided over an unbelievably ill-conceived and wasteful program of buying Apple iPads at inflated prices. See further coverage here, here, and here.
“But when the Vergara lawsuit came to trial, guess who was front and center testifying that, oh sure, the big problem at LAUSD was teacher tenure? Supt. John Deasy.”
Hiltzik notes that the judge glosses over all the hard questions, like how to identify “bad” teachers, how to attract and retain good teachers. He writes: “And that’s the key to all these issues of teacher quality: How do you measure it? Eviscerating the due process protection of teachers on the job won’t guarantee quality; it will only give administrators more leeway to harass or promote teachers for any reasons they choose.”
The decision, he concludes, is just snake oil. Its partisans are cheering, its opponents are in despair. But in the end, it will make little difference. It offers no real remedies for the serious underfunding of schools, and it does not offer constructive ways to strengthen the recruitment and support of the teachers that students need.
The partisans of the will ultimately be disappointed to see how little they have won. Ten years from now, we will look back and wonder what the big deal was. By then, the legislature in California may have extended the probationary period from 18 months to three years. Seniority may or may not be preserved, depending on the courts and the legislature.
But if the underlying challenges of poverty, segregation, and inadequate funding of public schools in California are not addressed, the Vergara ruling will be a forgotten footnote. Billionaires, millionaires, and hedge funders are savoring their victory now, but time will reveal that their campaign produced nothing consequential, nothing that actually helped students.
What do students need: a well-resourced school, staffed by experienced teachers, offering a full curriculum, small class size, and the services that benefit students, such as nurses, counselors, psychologists, librarians, after-school programs, and up-to-date technology. Vergara provides none of these.
Well said and I can’t really add to that except that I wish everyone could see the folly of the Vegara case.
I came across this excellent article written by a teacher who has made the painful decision to leave his beloved profession. It is eloquently well written and I’m sure can resonate with many readers. He has used his voice. I hope someone listens. The young man says that he hasn’t been on a vacation in 6 years since beginning his teaching career. He would have been a valued participant at the NPR conference. I wonder if he is aware of this blog or the organization’s existence? Unfortunately there are educators out there who still aren’t which means that the need for it is even more critical. The link to the article is:
http://www.newsleader.com/story/opinion/columnists/2014/06/07/teachers-tough-decision-leave-classroom/10170567/
Collectively I wonder how many “Josh’s” there are out there? How many of us are on the brink, too, with a similar story playing out in schools and school districts far and near. Devoting your career, your life, your time, sacrificing everything in the quest to prove that you are that “good teacher” giving, giving, giving, but then the return does not yield interest; that you are not valued. Even if you’ve made a difference, even if you have been successful and have achieved proven student growth results, even if you still love and believe in what you do, you end up realizing one day that the cost is just too high. And, so another good one is now gone; a personal loss and a loss to the profession. Usually, I would continue writing, but right now words fail me. I encourage you to read Josh’s words.
I swear I cannot post without making a typo–of course I meant NPE, not NPR…so sorry.
Here in California, for more than a decade and up until four years ago, Freshmen English classes were ceilinged at
20 students and it made a huge difference for both honors and “regular” students.
A tutorial program between the C.S.U’s and the high schools and grammar schools for
aspiring teachers could especially help at risk students of all races. And in violent schools, a policeman on duty would protect, at least to an extent, the bullied from
worse than bullies. A paperless school is not by defintion a good school. There is a value of taking notes, writing rough drafts, holding a textbook. Gates and Rhee and Jeb Bush and a horde of selfish quick fix billionaires are seeking to destroy what is good about
American education rather than intelligently reforming what needs to be reformed:
laws to keep guns from children, rational discipline, money to attract young idealistic
teachers to low performing schools–and to attract teachers who want to be teachers
as a career not as a way to never teach in a classroom again. And Arnie Duncan
should resign and Tom Friedman, who has admitted his bias regarding Teach for
America, should lay down his credentials (he has none) as an anaylist of American
schools. Let Duncan and Friedman spend one week even teaching 5 classes per day
with kids of all ability level and see what they would say…I would doubt that they
or Gates could even last a week as a teacher. But as usual, to quote Bob Dylan,
“money doesn’t talk/it swears.”
“Let Duncan and Friedman spend one week even teaching 5 classes per day…”
No, anyone can come in from the outside for a day, a week, or a year and look impressive. Let them come in for five years with no escape plan, no permission to escape to administration, and then watch as they see the light.
How does the public view this case? In the court of public opinion, I believe they will focus on one issue, how long does the dismissal process take and how much does it cost? Is this rational or is it too much? Deasy quoted roughly a $450,000 cost. I would guess that the public does not want teacher jails, or, people suspended with pay for more than a year. So, if this case helps fix that, the public will always side with that.
I don’t think the public really views this case other than sound bites.
Just think of the millions wasted promulgating this lawsuit. Think of the time and energy wasted because of a lawsuit that was more about publicity than reality. Instead of these organizations, that purport to help the neediest students, spending their money trying to destroy the due process rights of teachers or attempting to stop laws that regulate Charters, think how these millions could have been better spent to improve all schools– Charters as well as public schools. To me, this is Caesar offering the poor a small piece of stale bread but a whole lot of circus. In the end, Rome fell because its underlying economic problems were never dealt with. Unfortunately, the 1% that pulls the strings of this economy seem hell bent on traveling the same path. One that does not learn from history is bound to repeat it as the saying goes.
So true, liberal teacher.
The public might be less fooled than some think.Duncan’s soccer mom statement,
the arrogance of Friedman and Gates, the way Duncan rushed to praise
a court ruling before a review–is playing less well every day.
Thank you for pointing out so clearly that in the instance of the Vergara decision, the emperor has no clothes. Shame on Superintendent Deasy for buying into the simplistic anti-teacher agenda!
The reformers don’t want to fix anything, they want to destroy unions, tenure, seniority, LIFO, collective bargaining rights and teacher pensions, for good measure. The reformers and the billionaire boys’ clubs have an anti-union ideology that predates any concern they may have had for the students. NJ has strong unions, tenure (it’s had tenure for about a century), seniority and LIFO and NJ schools always rank in the top tier of schools with MA and CT which also have strong unions, tenure, etc.
This is called DEFORM!
The Vergara decision will not help children because the litigation was never intended to meet that goal.
I urge viewers of this blog to read the fine article mentioned in the posting.
Interesting side point. Michael Hiltzik has a better understanding of what is happening in the education arena than a great many “ed” reporters in the MSM, including those writing for his own newspaper, the LATIMES.
😎