I Wrote This at the NYP Following the Blige Piece

I hate to say this, but this kind of problem exists all over the country. If you think by taking a job in the southern states or out in the west will spare you, you have another thing coming. Teachers have utterly no rights in these "right-to-work" states; the unions are junk and collude with school districts. The principals are as bad if not worse in other parts of the country. Iris Blige is, unfortunately, the rule rather than the exception for principals in the United States. It is just that she got caught, albeit she received a slap on the wrist. It is virtually impossible to fire principals in this country. Teachers, contrary to myths perpetuated in the media, are easily gotten rid of and their lives destroyed. They don't have to do something truly egregious or dangerous to be removed. All a principal has to do is fabricate charges with the knowledge the school districts and thus taxpayers will ALWAYS back them up clear through the hearings and into the various courts of appeals. It isn't the same as in private industry because managers and even CEOs are fired all the time for wrongdoing because they pose a threat to the bottom line. Lawsuits can bankrupt a company, unlike a school district. Lower level employees have more job security in the private sector than those higher up the chain. Public education is a completely different ballgame because of the fact there is always a flow of cash and no bottom line to worry about. "Tenure" really needs to be tenure; right now administrative law is treated like toilet paper by school districts around the country; they openly flout the law with the knowledge teachers are typically too destitute to fight. Usually teachers wind up taking piddling settlements, and if they do so, they risk losing unemployment benefits, not to mention "resigning" in lieu of termination is seen by other school districts as an admission of "guilt." Teachers need far more rights, not fewer, because of the nature of the work.

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I have thought of writing Gov. Sandoval about what education reforms REALLY need to take place in Nevada, but I suppose he is in bed with the same hedge fund crooks and billionaires as almost all of our politicians from both political parties.