Most teachers will tell you that former Gov. Jeb Bush missed the mark when he equated educational accountability with FCATs. They were right. Teaching to standardized tests inevitably results, and teaching to standardized tests is inherently flawed.
Teachers will also tell you that Bush’s plan to end teacher tenure also was without merit. They were wrong.
Teachers – after a three-year, annual-contract period – now get permanent “professional service” contracts. It’s unique. It’s supposed to be a buffer against “vindictive administrators.” As if bad bosses only gravitate to education.
The reality is this: Time and red tape make it almost impossible to fire a merely incompetent teacher. Too often they are transferred and become some other school’s and some other students’ problem. That’s inexcusable.
It’s a lot easier if they are sexual predators or drug dealers. The merely overwhelmed and underperforming are more the case – and likely to be tolerated.
The issue is packaged in a bill that will head to the Legislature next month. If passed, the end of tenure as we now know it, however, would only apply to those hired after July 2009. But that’s not consolation enough for the state teachers union that’s already braced for battle.
The loss of tenure, it will be argued, is yet another indignity – low salaries, lousy FCAT-related morale, budget cuts – being imposed upon teachers.
Granted, these are especially challenging times for those presiding in Florida’s classrooms. But they are no less consequential for students. And whatever is done with the end of improving their learning environment, it won’t much matter if there’s not a quality teacher in front of them. That’s really what the tenure debate is about.