The Bipartisan (and Union) Assault on Tenure

Last year, President Obama called for teachers to be rewarded for their “effectiveness,” a call he repeated last week in his State of the Union address. He propped up these calls with Race to the Top (RTTT), which offered states large bribes (which he euphemistically called grants) for facilitating privatization schemes and for undermining tenure and seniority by tying teacher evaluations to student achievement.

Republican Governors in Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Nevada and New Jersey have called for the elimination or dismantling of tenure, with anti-tenure bills in the works in those states and in several others. Michael Bloomberg has been pressuring Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to dismantle tenure in New York. Democratic LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants to make it easier to fire ineffective teachers. Michelle Rhee, also a democrat, has made tenure abolition one of the cornerstones of her anti-education StudentsFirst movement, having advised the governors of Florida, Nevada and New Jersey. With debilitating budget deficits putting teachers unions on the defensive, many believe that such measures stand a good chance of passing.

To read the rest, please visit http://modeducation.blogspot.com/2011/02/bipartisan-and-union-assault-on-tenure.html

There are reasons for that:

>>>>>>>>They Really Want to Dismantle Tenure Because It Will Allow Administrators:
to fire teachers they don’t like, who speak out against unpopular policies, who advocate for teachers or students, or who are active union organizers
to fire veteran teachers who earn much more than novice teachers and cost more to districts
to save money by stacking their staffs with younger teachers who earn less
to more easily push through unpopular, untested or ineffective reforms because younger, less experienced teachers are more likely to buy into the reforms and more willing to put in the extra hours to implement them
to weaken unions by getting rid of union activists and supporters and replacing them with younger teachers who often have less class and union consciousness>>>>>>>>>

Ummm.... we're not Republicans.

Can someone clue-in the clueless in our ranks?

They have bought the meme that America's education problems are completely the fault of "bad" teachers, ignoring poverty, parental support, class size, lack of resources, etc.