Teachers as Scapegoats

The media, taking their cue from the neoliberals which seek to destroy ALL institutions designed for the public good, goes around and trashes teachers by making claims "bad" teachers are being supported by "unions" and that it is impossible to get rid of them.

Now that we are familiar with what the World Bank and its ilk want for public education, which is to dismantle it and deprofessionalize teaching, the "arguments" the media are making are just a tad bit dishonest.

Not to mention completely ignorant of what really goes on in public education and in the treatment of its teachers.

The problem with the "unions," which more often than not are "associations" and NOT real unions, is that they are too much in cahoots with administrators and DON'T have the best interests of teachers.

ANY teacher can be easily rid of; all an unscrupulous principal has to do with a "tenured" teacher is fabricate a paper trail, knowing the district (and thus taxpayers) will back them to the hilt, clear through the various courts of appeals. Districts can easily rig termination hearings, at least in states like Nevada or California wherein a politically-motivated hearing officer "awards" a decision. (In states like Oregon which have a panel, teachers may fare better.) Non-tenured teachers are simply let go with no "due process" rights and for any reason or no reason whatsoever. NOTHING happens to principals; it makes news when firings happen in their cases.

Most of the time, tenured teachers are "asked," read FORCED, to resign. The reason for this is two-fold: one, it saves money on legal expenses, and two, teachers who "resign" aren't eligible for unemployment insurance. The problem is teachers who are forced out have no better chance of being hired elsewhere as teachers as those who are "dismissed." Typically school districts will ask if a teacher has "resigned in lieu of dismissal" on applications. Furthermore, the whole system is set up that a teacher has to use a previous principal as his or her reference, and if the principal has treated him or her like dirt, he or she won't give the teacher a good one anyway.