Remember, Arne Duncan said Hurricane Katrina was the best thing that ever happened to New Orleans schools. He gave a half-assed apology later on.
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Two pieces of legislation passed in April to attack teacher tenure and create a statewide school voucher system have been challenged in the courts by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. The law governing tenure will make “tenure rights harder for new teachers to secure and ties the protections for all teachers, current and new hires, to student performance,” the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
In spite of its sweeping attacks on working conditions and job security, however, the union has been challenged the legislation on the narrowest of procedural grounds.
According to the Times-Picayune, “The challenge to the tenure and personnel law hangs on constitutional requirements that bills, with narrow exceptions, deal with a singular topic and that amendments be related to that subject matter.” The paper notes that “some staff attorneys at the Legislature” believe that the judges would “be reluctant to strike down legislation purely on ‘dual object’ grounds.”
Some of the most vicious attacks on teachers have come at the local level. The recently elected school board of Jefferson Parish, which borders the city of New Orleans, voted unanimously in April to endorse a reorganization plan of Superintendent James Meza. The school system has attempted to spin this as an attempt to reduce administrative costs and shift resources towards students. However, the “reorganization” is in fact a plan for shuttering schools and ripping up teachers’ rights. Principals will have increased authority in hiring and firing teachers, “underperforming” schools will be closed, and the central office staff will shrink in size, with the exception of several new executive positions.
As if principals don't already have too much power as it is.
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