Conservative billionaire Rex Sinquefield does not believe that teaching should be a career. He doesn’t think that teachers should have any job security. He thinks that teachers should have short-term contracts and that their jobs should depend on the test scores of their students. He has contributed $750,000 to launch a campaign for a constitutional amendment in Missouri to achieve his aims.
The campaign, in a style now associated with those who hope to dismantle the teaching profession, has the duplicitous name “teachgreat.org” to signify the opposite of its intent. The assumption is that the removal of any job security and any kind of due process for teachers will somehow mysteriously produce “great” teachers. This absurd idea is then called “reform.” This is the kind of thinking that typically comes from hedge fund managers, not human service professionals.
Sinquefield manages billions of dollars and is also the state’s biggest political contributor.
“The “Teachgreat.org” initiative would limit teacher contracts to no more than three years. It also requires “teachers to be dismissed, retained, demoted, promoted, and paid primarily using quantifiable student performance data as part of the evaluation system,” according to the summary on the group’s website.
“The initiative also mandates that teachers be allowed to engage in collective bargaining for pay, benefits and working conditions, in an apparent move to appeal to teacher groups. So far, such organizations have been wary of the proposed constitutional amendment.
“Sinquefield gave $100,000 to Teachgreat.org this summer.
“Roughly 147,000-160,000 signatures from Missouri registered voters would be needed to get a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot. The exact number depends on which six of the state’s eight congressional districts are used for signature collection.
“A similar ballot initiative – also backed by Sinquefield — was proposed for the 2012 ballot, but signature collection was never completed.
“This latest contribution sharply increases Sinquefield’s total 2013 donations to various Missouri causes and candidates to more than $2.5 million, according to the Ethics Commission’s tally.”
We have seen in state after state that conservative ideologues can buy politicians. But we will see whether they can also buy enough of the public, through advertising and public relations, to start the purge that Sinquefield believes is necessary.
I can’t help but be reminded of the time I spoke to the Missouri Education Association about three years ago. There were about 800 teachers there from across the state. Afterwards, when I signed books, I was struck by the number of people who said things like, “please sign this for my dad, he is a retired superintendent,” or “please sign this for me and my two sisters, we are a family of teachers.” So many of the teachers came from small towns where their family had been teachers for years. If Sinquefield has his way, who will replace them? Is there a long line of graduates from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton just itching to teach in Eureka and all the towns and hamlets of Missouri, to take the place of those who are fired? And who will replace them when they move on to their real careers?
Sinquefield despises public schools. In 2012, he had to apologize for a remark in which he said that the KU Klux Klan invented public schools to hurt African-American children.
Sinquefield founded a fund that now manages over $300 billion. He is also founder and president of the Show-Me Institute, a libertarian policy belief-tank.
” He is also founder and president of the Show-Me Institute, a libertarian policy belief-tank.”
How one becomes a billionaire in our economy while believing in a political and economic ideology stuck in eighth grade is beyond me.
Does Mr. Sinquefeld have children? Do/did his children attend public school? (Ha! I know, stupid question, right?) Do/did his children have career teachers or short term contractors? ‘Nuff said.
Spot on! I was just about to post something similar. I sometimes wonder what these folks’ own teachers were like as well; you know – the ones who helped them develop the skills and knowledge that led to their own success.
I suspect everyone had a mix of strong and weak teachers through school.
TE, are you trying to compete with Joe Nathan for most uncontroversial – and most irrelevant – post? It’s a close call, but Mr. Nathan has the technique perfected, so I’m afraid you’ll need to keep working.
Actually the last time I posted a statement like this I was accused of making an unsupported generalization. I don’t think all consider it uncontroversial.
This man is an idiot, has tons of money, and probably has tons of influence in his state because he Is rich. Can you imagine having this much money, yet you spend your time trying to harm the teaching profession rather than doing something far more noble to help mankind? These are the type of kooks having influence over our political system. What is with all billionaires getting their kicks out of kicking around teachers?
Your humanity always amazes me. Keep on fighting the good fight. BATs are with you.
The problem of corporate involvement in public education policy is not restricted to “conservative” entities. There are many wealthy “liberals” (Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffet) who have, in common, injected billions of private dollars influencing public policy.
Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey are not “liberals” by any stretch of the imagination. Warren Buffet has not been involved in the corporate education reform movement as far as I know.
Yes, Gates and Oprah are not liberals. They are patrician philanthropists who use their great wealth to do some very questionable things. They are egoists who silence critics. They buy the right to dictate policy without public debate. Their practices are consistent with maintaining the power of great wealth over democracy. Re: Buffett–my college writing classes study Buffett as a research project. Buffett is a billionaire version of Will Rogers–folksy, amusing, avuncular. He has one ethical stance which arouses billionaire ire against him: “There is class war and my class, the rich, are winning.” Solution? Tax the super-rich like him far more. A good idea that neither Dems or GOP will touch(except for a modest DeBlasio.) Buffett gave $30billion to Gates for his foundation, so you can see that Buffett is the biggest enabler of the Gates mischief against the 50 million kids in public schools.
We need to recognize this for what it is: there are people and memes out there that just hate “government schools”. It’s visceral, not ideological or even rational. They despise the poor, people of different color, religions, and origins.
And there are a lot of them out there.
This approach may work for the simple “bodies in the room” of elite private schools, private tutors, etc who are simply the ushers along the velvet rope to 18 yrs old when the learners can access their trust funds, or students who have high level of support/enrichment/models of success…. The move to abolish tenure is a direct attack on the education of those who need stability and security the most because they have the least. Finding ways to cheapen and weaken education for a growing number of poor children is meant to generate profits for the already wealthy, and protect them from those who might learn enough to organize efforts to create more equity.
Is there a specific place reformers can point to where teachers are better compensated after a reform agenda is put in?
Charter teachers in Ohio and Michigan are paid less than public school teachers. I don’t know where charters in Ohio are “investing” the public money they receive, but it isn’t going to teachers salaries.
Since Ohio has has ed reform for more than a decade now, I would think the reformer claim that teachers will be better compensated under reform would have become reality here, but it hasn’t.
This is just another race to the bottom on wages, isn’t it?
Kudos to Mrs. Ravitch for keeping this in the public view, and to commenter Dan McConnell, for keepin’ it real. You packed a lot into that last sentence, sir. Mind if I steal it?
Our nation needs strict campaign finance laws. Everyday some elected official is getting paid off, one way or the other. Time for a real revolution when we the people take back our government.
Absolutely 100% correct. Interesting that Republican Buddy Roemer is the only politician I’ve ever heard sound serious about getting corporate dollars out of campaigns.
The good part about this effort by the Sinker is that most Show Me staters are quite conservative and changing the constitution is a big, big deal. I believe he has shot himself in the arse with this approach as it is pretty easy to counteract a constitutional amendment with just a bit of logic. There is a fairly strong labor/union base (at least for these times) that can be activated against this. Also in talking with folks, supposedly “simple” (they ain’t) country folks tells me it won’t fly. We still have to do our work but for the most part in Missouri teachers are still afforded a modicum of respect and most can see this as a direct attack on the teachers and nothing more.
Unfortunately, the Sinkster will also be pushing “right to work” (for lower wages) in this legislative session.
It just shows you can be rich and stupid. I know I wouldn’t teach if I didn’t have job security and it was a career. People who don’t teach don’t understand the risks teachers take to help students learn. Like everyone else, we need to be able to try new things. We need to be able to try and FAIL and learn from our failure. Every child does not learn the same way and teachers need to grow and adapt. The only way to become a GREAT teacher is through security and experience. You can’t get that when you are constantly living in fear of losing your job.
Who ever this man is, he doesn’t like teachers. The teachers in this Country should be praised for what they endure each day. They need a voice, someone to shout “Our Children need to be educated by responsible people. Repaid for time & energy given to my job,Teaching.
Pretty soon, MO won’t have enough teachers. It’s happening already in Dallas; we have hundreds of unfilled positions for teachers and subs. It’s happening in Cleveland.
No one wants to work in a hostile environment where they are blamed for everything, so they will go elsewhere. How hard is it to see what’s coming?
Cupcake: you and Marianna Boncek [see above] have made a crucial point. To tease it out a little, an educator’s teaching environment is a student’s learning environment. Degrade, distort, destroy the first, and you do the same to the second.
Just remember, though, that the leading charterites/privatizers are mandating failure for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN. When it comes to THEIR OWN CHILDREN, in practice they adopt a very different attitude.
😎
“Is there a long line of graduates from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton just itching to teach in Eureka and all the towns and hamlets of Missouri, to take the place of those who are fired? And who will replace them when they move on to their real careers?”
So many business-types don’t live in realty and they fail to weigh all possible consequences of their edu-business plans. Magical thinking is the new normal. Taking this perspective, if you acquired billion$ due to your talent & brilliance, no one need question the practical consequences of your latest edu-schemes. They’ll work- now go do what I say!
Eureka schools, the Rockwood School District, is one of the more higher thought of in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Not easy to get in there.
But you are right there are many very small districts in MO.
….and where would Sinquefield be today without the teachers who educated him? It never ceases to amaze me that in the US those who are most instrumental in the growth and development of adults and their potential for success are the very ones who are respected least!
Sinquefield was educated in Catholic schools. He should use his vast wealth to save them, as they are being destroyed by competition with charters.
If catholic schools are being destroyed by parents choosing charters, it suggests that the motivation to send your children to catholic schools is not to give your children a religious education.
He’s a DuBurger, he can’t help it!
(That’s for all my DuBurger alumni friends!)
Referring to Sinquefield’s Klan remark, maybe this is why “reformers” want less fictional material because they can not tell the difference between fiction and reality!
http://rturner229.blogspot.com/2012/02/writer-who-penned-source-of-sinquefield.html
It is amazing that all of our “reformers” manage to take flawed data or reports and twist them into something that they support and then state them as fact! The whole “reform” Common Core, VAM, Charters etc. , is based on the twisting of facts to serve as a basis for their lies!
Missouri is a Border State.
Same war – new issues.
Diane, also remember that MO Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro advised Sinquefield on the wording of this petition. Between this and her conspiring with CEE Trust, she needs to step down. Please help us circulate this petition to stop CEE Trust:
http://www.change.org/petitions/missouri-state-board-of-education-issue-a-moratorium-of-the-cee-trust-study-and-continue-with-the-regional-school-improvement-team-rsit-process-2
Horrible – horrible man!!! Couldn’t walk in the shoes of a teacher for one minute!!!
Most citizens in this country ae frustrated with its politicians and big money funding politicians. This is the GAME of POWER OVER, pure and simple, and a return to the days of King George of England. Thought we fought that one a long time ago?
I hope he continues to fail. I have faith in the citizens of Missouri to do the right thing,
If this sort of teacher bashing succeeds, it will decimate public schools. Who will consider education as a career when there is no job security? It will be just a series of TFAs. Three years and you’re out. Want to try again somewhere else? No thanks. Next!
Then who will fill the vacancies? I recommend some volunteers – Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, and John King (let’s actually get some teaching experience). See how it feels.
Most careers do not have job security in the sense of tenure.
True.
However, my oldest daughter has had numerous jobs, and ten years into her career is now earning about double what a comparable teacher gets. Plus she has great benefits. Are the reformers thinking about paying top dollar for experienced master teachers?
You can’t pick and choose the parts you like and discard the rest.
Tenure protects both the schools and the teachers. Good teachers would easily leave for better assignments, but are reluctant to leave the job security and start over at a lower step/pay. In the real world, employees skip to the best offer, with the better pay package. And they get bonuses. Nice sized bonuses.
Is that what you want for teachers?
I agree that tenure does work to the advantage of the employer in several ways. It encourages teachers to invest in school specific efforts that are not necessarily valuable in other schools or districts, it allows schools to trade off lower salaries for job security as you pointed out, and it tends to lock teachers into a district/state, making it harder for teachers to take advantage of other opportunities.
The disadvantage of tenure from the employer’s point of view (and by employer I mean the public) is that mistakes in hiring and retention are hard to fix. I read this morning about one principal who stayed awake at night thinking about the children who had to deal with the worst teacher in the school.
Things are hardly ever black and white. There are almost always trade offs in any policy position.
Luckily, there aren’t too many bad teachers. Unfortunately, the rules that protect good teachers, also protect the bad ones. However, there are bad apples in every workplace, not just schools. All the principal can do is send her for in servicing, have her shadow some model teachers, and try to work with her one on one to help her become a better teacher. (Or him). Probably what we should be doing with our under achieving students.
That principal managed to counsel several teachers out of the school.
Just like we do for unwanted students.
“…mistakes in hiring and retention are hard to fix.”
Which is why they usually have three to five years to get it right. Tenure is not a seat-of-the-pants decision, TE.
It is at least six years in higher education (after around six years of post graduate work, so the average faculty member is in the early to mid 30’s when tenured) and we still screw it up upon occasion.
The lack of mandatory retirement is making universities examine post tenure review more carefully. I noticed over the break that an 81 year old University of Chicago Math professor died while preparing to teach his classes for the coming term. My institution has a number of faculty in their late seventies and at least one in his mid eighties.
TE, in some States pension requirements include an age of 65 for full pension. As pensions diminish in value I am sure you will see Public School Teachers working till death in order to keep from poverty!
And public school teachers DO NOT HAVE TENURE in Missouri. They have due process rights, that’s it. I’ve seen principals get rid of exemplary teachers with due process rights whom they didn’t like.
Your’s is a cheap talking point, TE. And unfortunately on the wrong side of the border wars unlike the last set when Kansas was on the right side.
We have to face the fact that much of the edreform is really union busting.
And that’s a failing of our system. Most careers SHOULD have job security, and yes “tenure”, which simply means you are entitled to a fair hearing before an impartial group before you can be dismissed from your job.
Contrary to the propaganda spread by “Public Anything Haters”, tenure does NOT mean “guaranteed a job for life regardless of performance.”
If the organization you’re working for isn’t having budgetary issues, and if you continue to adequately perform the specified duties of your job, then there is no reason to throw you out of your career. And this should be true for teachers, lawyers, retail clerks, coal miners, doctors, cab drivers, cartoonists, nurses, janitors, salesmen, architects and waiters.
Okay? Got it?
What is it with some people who when they see a person being mistreated, their argument is, “Well, lots of other people are getting mistreated too so stop complaining and just accept your mistreatment!”
Don’t these sociopaths ever consider reversing this twisted logic and think “Hey, why don’t we lift EVERYONE up, so that we all have a decent shot at a good life instead of looking for ways to drag EVERYONE into the depths of despair.
The detached Ruling Elite likes to say this largely false statement:
“MY wealth did not cause YOUR poverty.” (Actually, in many cases, they are directly related.)
But to those who think it’s fun to ridicule teachers and complain about their relatively meager earnings and benefits—jobs requiring the same level of education and experience in the private sector almost always pay higher—I’d like to say the following:
“MY benefits granted by my employer, did not cause YOUR lack of benefits. But let’s join forces and fight for a country, and a world, where ALL working people get treated with kindness and respect, and where we ALL can have some measure of dignity, job security and a retirement with at least some modest level of comfort and economic security.”
PSP,
I think your proposed system of quasi judicial hearings where employers have to prove financial exigency or underperformance any time any business wishes to terminate an employee would be impossibly burdensome.
The more difficult you make it to terminate a full time worker, the more difficult you make it to hire a full time worker. What I think you would see is under your proposal is businesses hiring folks in ways that terminating them would not require a hearing. This would likely be to the detriment of both the employer and the employee.
TE, as an undergraduate, I had three professors in their seventies whose classes I was privileged and grateful to attend.
I guess the thing about tenure is this: Most critics say it protects bad teachers. In essence it is just the opposite. It protects good,excellent teachers from “helicopter parents” and personality conflicts with administrators. Say you are a clerk in a store, and a customer accuses you of being dishonest In your dealings with them. The accusation is not at all true. Do you think you should be fired? This happens quite often to teachers. Tenure is to make sure proper procedures are followed to make sure accusations are true/false. I am not saying saying what is said is always false, but there are 2 sides to every story. I was once accused of something I did not do, and there were 5 adult school employees present who were witnesses for me. There were even students who volunteered to come forward with the truth. I was lucky that I had school administrators who were willing to get to the bottom of the situation by a fair investigation investigation, but all teachers are not that lucky. You might also have to deal with school board members who have a personal vendetta (this is especially true for those who are teacher/coaches) or want someone let go because they gave a daughter, son, wife,etc. that they would like to give that position to. Tenure is also needed in these s situations.
I think you are correct that there are costs and benefits to a tenure system.
There are costs and benefits to ANY system.
What is your point?
Did you have one?
And your superior alternative is what, exactly, Mr. “Subtle Troll”?
PSP,
It is unlikely that any particular policy on job security will be superior in every dimension. As I said there are costs and benefits to a tenure system, there are costs and benefits to a non-tenure system.
In higher education the cost benefit calculation changed with the end of mandatory retirement. With faculty routinely teaching into their 70’s and beyond, tenure has changed from a 30 year commitment to as much as a 50 year commitment. The largest impact on the institution is that departments have become more static in outlook, policy, and curriculum.
The coach issue happened in Williamsville. He wasn’t fired, but he was relieved of his coaching positions. I guess he picked on the wrong kid. My experiences with him as a coach were negative, but I never complained. My son, however, was happy he got his just desserts. The whole incident is extremely controversial – in this case the parents are supporting the coach and chastising the superintendent (who investigated the situation and stands by his decision). The Buffalo News closely followed the story. There were many letters to the editor. This man was highly respected and held a state position in the basketball league. However, coaching is not protected by tenure, so the superintendent doesn’t need a reason to fire any coach. The coach is appealing the decision in court.
In this case I agree with the superintendent, but I am in the minority. This coach knew the children to favor (with influential parents in the community) and those to ignore (like my son), however, tormenting an over weight child is unacceptable in my eyes.
Fonda, I have another true story.
I worked at a school in South Buffalo with some excellent teachers. One of these teachers had a student (3rd grade) that decided he was going to act like a dog. He got down on all fours and barked. He then hid under the desk and wouldn’t come out. For some reason, the parents complained, the Buffalo News got ahold of the story, and it was twisted around to say she had FORCED the child to act like a dog. There were news cameras outside the building and her name was smeared by the press.
The poor dear was devastated. Luckily we had a wonderful principal who had promised to always back up his staff (which he did). He knew it was all lies. So did her colleagues. I don’t remember if she was put on administrative leave, but she was brave enough to return to the same classroom and resume teaching.
I am glad to say that even though I had conflicts, I was never in the paper for any negative activities – true or false.
There are way too many billionaires that have unlimited amounts of money to control our lives. Rachel Maddow had a segment re the Koch brothers and their large contributions that fit their political views.
We the ordinary folks are pawns to these billionaires and they stop at nothing.
Tenure makes it possible for teachers to be fair. I have known parents to go directly to an administrator who is a close friend of theirs and demand a certain grade or special favor. I have known teachers to be threatened to give favors to certain athletes or children of school board members. Tenure also protects educators from administrators out to exact revenge or simply remove a teacher who they have a personality conflict with. Tenure is there for a reason. In Missouri, unlike other states, an ineffective teacher can be fired, even if they are tenured. All tenure does is provide a due process. That is fair for everyone.
As was mentioned elsewhere, there is NO state where “tenured” teachers cannot be removed. It takes some time, but it is very doable.
Tenure is a misnomer, particularly in K-12 public schools. The only thing that “tenure” provides is a due-process for terminating a teacher that has been in a school system for a designated time. This was established in public school contracts to eliminate nepotism, terminating teachers to make way for less expensive replacements and the overall professionalism of the profession. When I was in high school in the early 70s our long time art teacher was let go at the end of my freshman year to be replaced by the basketball coach’s wife the next year. The woman did not even have a college degree and nearly burned the school down with her lack of knowledge on operating a ceramic kiln. If there are bad teachers languishing in a school system it is because of cowardly, inept administrators that don’t know how to do their job.
Juan – been there. You speak the truth.
In Buffalo, an incompetent tenured teacher can be “fired”, but the due process takes about three years. Sometimes they are put on administrative leave with pay. Sometimes they are “promoted” to desk jobs in lower management positions. If they break the terms of the contract, such as getting arrested for soliciting a prostitute or having child porn on their computer, they can be immediately terminated. (All real experiences I am reporting).
Tenure will be saving some school districts fairly soon as I see it. If teachers continue to be public enemy number 1 in politicians eyes there won’t be teachers to fill the jobs. Who would want to be a teacher? I know I do my best everyday but really hate hearing how we are doing it all wrong! Come food a teacher around for a day!
It is money this kind of benefactor is looking for most. It’s not about student’s academic success–certainly not by public schools. Many wealthy benefactors don’t really care if charters and vouchers work better or not. This man apparently doesn’t want to see students succeed in public schools because he is more interested in raking in millions of dollars from magic mushroom called *CHIOCE harvested by state reformers, and success of public schools and legal due process obviously stand in the way of that billion dollars Ed-drug business.
*CHIOCE=Chronically Hallucinatory If Overdosed by Curriculum and Education
It is money this kind of benefactor is looking for most. It’s not about student academic success–certainly not by public schools. Many wealthy benefactors don’t really care if charters and vouchers work better or not. This man apparently doesn’t want to see students succeed in public schools because he is more interested in raking in millions of dollars from magic mushroom called CHIOCE harvested by state reformers, and success of public schools and legal due process, in his view, obviously stand in the way of that billion dollars Ed-drug business.
*CHIOCE=Chronically Hallucinatory If Overdosed in Curriculum and Education
I am going to post a couple comments I made after a st. Louis post dispatch article…just the link…..http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/transfer-process-for-normandy-riverview-gardens-students-begins-again-next/article_f853f2fa-b362-5dde-9eb6-f1e5ba3d955f.html?mode=comments……I can tell you that a guy in Oakland tweeted about listening to a rock and roll album I recorded in 1972, I had my first tweet marked as favorable by someone I suspect of manipulating the Missouri media on behalf of sinquefield….and I am writing music now….about him and two guys at the pd…..if you see what I said, and have a question….I promise I will respond.
Just to point out how “Tenure” seems to most people — we’ve heard stories in the news, mainsteam, how abusive teachers are *not* fired, how they continue on, just like many abusive Catholic priests did….
Fact.
See?
So now we end up with the rhetoric of extremes —
teachers never fired for anything short of major crimes
OR
teachers fired at the drop of a hat, just for the heck of it…
But….what most people want is not extremes — we want really bad teachers (there are some of course) fired, and that doesn’t mean we want most teachers fired.
Are we allowed to take a middle path?
If all the rhetoric is extremes, isn’t that an opportunity for centrists to gain some ground?
Talking about extremes, Hal…….you have absolutely zero documentation that tenure laws prevent schools from firing really bad teachers.
Joe, I should have edited before posting. My point is only that the *popular perception*, however correct or incorrect, is that having tenure = no accountibility.
That’s the popular perception, however accurate, from district to district. Obviously, any individual district can vary, etc.,etc., etc.
That’s the popular perception that allowed NCLB, public to private, etc. all to happen.
You may not like it, you may be able to do something about it…..
Let’s apply the same performance formula to medical professionals: patient dies?Don’t pay the doctor. It’s SO simple!
Don’t worry, with people such as he, Missouri will become devoid of young people who are looking for a future and realize there is none under that system. Also, who would want to become a teacher under those conditions? Money seems to cloud the judgment of some people. He should hope that if he ever has to go under the knife, that surgeon had a good teacher who did not have to suffer under a no tenure system.
“Also, who would want to become a teacher under those conditions? Money seems to cloud the judgment of some people.”
the criticism of “tenure” is that the teacher doesn’t have to worry about providing a quality education because they’re guaranteed pay no matter what.
if people don’t want to become teachers because it doesn’t pay well then they really don’t care about teaching kids in the first place!
Alex, you forget that we are not Mother Teresa. I have two Bachelors Degrees and a Masters plus 60 hours. I graduated Magna Cum Laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. I didn’t go into teaching for the money, but I also didn’t expect to be treated like a starving missionary. This is my career and I want to be paid and treated like a professional. My daughters, who both refused to consider following in my footsteps, are making more money than the average teacher and they are just starting their careers.
So treat us with respect and pay us for our skills. And if our calling is to work with the disadvantaged, do not penalize us for not producing the same results as those who work with children who live in the suburbs and have parents in a professional field. Many of the things we do cannot be measured.
Or do you have a rubric to rank the love and caring for children as individuals, not as a number one through four?
This SOB needs to try to live on what we live on. If he wants to stop something put an end to Teacher’s Unions who strike every time they turn around, and put thousands of children out of class for long periods of time. Tenure assures us that Joe Blow can’t fire us just because his child doesn’t make the grades that he thinks he deserves. Personal grudges get non-tenured teachers fired every year, as do personal friends of school
board members who want jobs. I am retired, so this won’t affect me but for the sake of younger teachers with debts to repay not to mention families to support, this idiot needs to be told to go bully the politicians and big businesses who cheat the public!
Here’s a clear, easy to understand illustration of VAM’s inability to distinguish between “effective” and “ineffective” teachers that responds to Sinquefield’s initiative. http://missourieducationwatchdog.com/sinquefield-goes-after-the-boogieman/. BTW, I was approached on Friday by a signature collector who knew nothing about the issue he was trying to get signatures for; he claimed that “Teachers want to be evaluated by tenure, test scores, and grades.” I kid you not.
I hope Diane will post something about a court case known as Vergara v.s. California. Theodore Olsen will be arguing for the plaintiffs in order to throw out teacher tenure. Things are not looking good for education and I don’t think heavy hitters like Olsen and the rest really understand what is happening in our classrooms. So, Diane, if you read this, please follow the case and post on it.
At the Central West End bus transfer station this afternoon 2/28/2014, people who had obviously been hired at very low wages were circulating ballot petitions supporting a Missouri constitutional amendment to get rid of teacher tenure and getting signatures from bus passengers who were not even bothering to read the petition.
Here’s an idea to find out how horrible public school systems really are. Shut down all public schools for 1 year. Guess what? No more free and reduced breakfasts and lunches, If you pay then no more prepared food for 1 or 2 of your child’s meal’s a day. No more free babysitting, no extracurricular activities- organized sports (school related), And best of all you as a parent get to quit your job and home school. If you can’t do that then you get to pay thousands of dollars to enroll your child in a private school. Oh and by the way, make sure you are able to pick your kid up after school. No more free bus rides. Some of you will say it’s not free because we pay taxes, and that is definitely true, but believe me things could cost a lot more. This guy is such an idiot. Of course he lost all credibility with that last statement anyway. Maybe he could subsidize some of the parent’s income that would like to quit their jobs and homeschool or pay some tuitions for children to get a “real” education in a private school. Better yet, he should open a school and be the star teacher.
Where did this guy get an education? Not only should teaching be a career, but teaching kids to a test is ridiculous. Most schools are underfunded and under staffed to handle all the different learning requirements that different student background present. Also the students home life produce difficulties at school which teachers are to address and fix to keep all students learning and advancing. Parents need to take an active roll in the education of their children as well, not just relying on the school system.
He needs to be made to teach for a year in an inner city school.
oh sure, that’ll prove that tenured teachers really care about their students.
every teacher is different. but the uneducated (because of their uneducated parents) kids who attend those schools are so unruly they need metal detectors at the entrances…. that’s not a good indicator of young minds ready to learn.
Alex, some readers might think you are exaggerating about the metal detectors, but some schools need them for safety. Bennett High School in Buffalo, NY has had such a violence issue that they have hired extra security guards to watch over the students.
When I went to High School ( in the suburbs) there was no need for security guards. But that was then, this is now. Adults need to forget the image of their high school days and focus on the reality of life in 2014.
I’d like to extend to Mr. Sinquefield the same invitation I’ve extended to several who have no idea what the inside of a classroom looks like: come spend a day with me. You get to come an hour early like I do, stand when I stand, walk where I walk, sit when (if!) I sit, eat what and when I eat, and use the restroom when and if I do. You also get to stay after for meetings and paper grading and lesson planning. I won’t make you come home with me for more grading and lesson planning after dinner. It should be an easy day for you, right?
I really hope this proposed amendment doesn’t make it to the ballot this November. This makes me so mad. How can people expect teachers to be evaluated by using “quantifiable student performance data”? The most important teachers that I’ve had have been those who have taught me so much more than what can be represented by “quantifiable student performance data”. I would like to see anyone who supports this bill give a quantifiable evaluation of their teachers or parents. Good grief. I get it that tenure has the possibility to remove financial motivation to become a better teacher… but who in the heck is into the teaching profession for the financial benefits? Someone who wants to be a teacher doesn’t do so in order to mold and influence great test-takers who know how to memorize data. There is so much more to the quality of a human-being than the quantifiable performance data he or she can regurgitate.
Is it on the ballot this fall? If it is or will be, I predict it will pass handily. The general public, taken as a whole, is ready, even eager, to end public education as we have known it for the last 100 years. Both political parties support corporate schools.
How will the wolf survive?