It shouldn’t take two whole years to rid LR schools of poor teachers.

Euphemism in education, part 673

LAST WEEK, as local union bosses were complaining about teachers having to operate under the same employment rules as every other human—do your job, or find work elsewhere—we noted something deep in a front-page story.

Actually, it was in the jump of Cynthia Howell’s front-page story, deep down somewhere on page 3A:

It can take as long as two years to follow all the legally required steps to remove a teacher for poor performance. This is a feature of the Teacher

Fair Dismissal Act in the legal code in this state.

If this is the rule for dismissing teachers fairly, what would be protecting the worst teachers from any form of accountability? What would be unfairly handcuffing principals? And unfairly exposing our young people to deadwood uninterested in teaching (at least on Mondays and Fridays)?

Shouldn’t the law be called the Teachers Are Never Dismissed Act? Alas, euphemism in education is nothing new.

When Johnny Key, this state’s education commissioner, announced that he wanted a waiver for that law—at any public school in Little Rock given a D or F grade—he told the press and surrounding audience that he couldn’t cite more than one specific example of a teacher termination that rose to his level as the man who’d make such a decision. Does a teacher have to sleep with (another euphemism) a student before he or she can be let go? Is “just” not doing a good job not reason enough? Is teaching so unimportant that bad teachers should be protected like this? We know our opinion.

Two years is not due process. It is undue delay. Name another profession in which it takes two years to make this kind of decision. Even a behemoth like the United States Army—a bureaucracy like no other—removes officers “for cause” all the time. Doctors—another important occupation—have licenses pulled after investigations and hearings. There is no tenure law for journalists, lawyers, sales associates, coaches, plumbers, bakers or candlestick makers. It certainly wouldn’t take two calendar years to fire the bad ones.

And imagine what is happening during those two years! Two whole classes of our students would have to be put through such non-education. How many students is that? And how far behind would they be as they are promoted to the next grade, as they most certainly would be?

For goodness sake, all these teachers who might be dismissed would also have the right to appeal to the school board, or in the case of Little Rock’s public schools, Johnny Key himself. The slacker employee at Home Depot or Lowe’s doesn’t get to appeal to the company’s board of directors. No board should micromanage personnel decisions in this way. Even if Johnny Key gets his (and the public’s) way on the waiver law, teachers in Little Rock would still have more protections than the rest of us.

The Teacher Fair Dismissal Act is one of the great education euphemisms of our time. Johnny Key is smart to try to get around it. Legally and with full transparency. That is, he came right out and said it.

Which is kind of refreshing, given those who named the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act to begin with.