Teacher Tenure: Prop. 74

The Sacramento Bee published the following letter to the editor on Sept. 19, 2005.
Teachers, working with others, established tenure to keep partisan
politics out of the public schools. All tenure does is protect teachers
from arbitrary dismissal. It protects the due process rights of
teachers. Poor teachers are dismissed under the current system.

Now, in Prop. 74 the Governor wants to extend the present probationary
period for teachers from two years to five years. How many of you
would put up with a 5 year probationary period in your job?

Why is this so important? Because arbitrary hiring and firing once
happened frequently. Hiring and dismissal of teachers was too often a
petty, patronage based, unprofessional process by school boards and
principals. Tenure is very important.
It protects teacher's freedom to speak and their basic citizenship
rights.

This initiative targets teachers as the problem in our public schools
without facing the problems of school budgets and finance which are the
responsibility of the governor and the legislature.

Our real problem is finding ways to keep new teachers in the schools and
to help them to improve.
Please vote No on Prop. 74. for more on this see
www.choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com

Duane Campbell