Steinberg bill remedies suit over layoffs
Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has introduced a bill directly responding to issues raised in a February lawsuit challenging the large-scale layoffs of teachers at three Los Angeles Unified middle schools and in low-performing schools elsewhere in California. Passage of SB 1285 could go a long way toward settling a serious suit with uncommon speed.
The bill would explicitly give superintendents and schools boards the authority to override teacher seniority rules in order to prevent disproportionate layoffs at any school. A federal judge ruled last month that districts already have this power under state law; they just don’t use it.
Because layoffs tend to cluster at low-performing schools serving minority children, where teachers tend to be less experienced, Steinberg’s bill specifically addresses those situations: Superintendents would have to ensure that the proportion of layoffs in their worst performing schools – those in the lowest three deciles statewide – did not exceed the average for their districts.
The lead attorneys who filed the lawsuit, Catherine Lhamon of Public Counsel Law Center and Mark Rosenbaum of the ACLU of Southern California, were by Steinberg’s side when he disclosed the bill Monday at a Sacramento elementary school, and applauded it. The bill “would catapult the state out of the bad-old days of separate and unequal educational opportunity” into an era in which all students are valued, Lhamon said.
Public Counsel and the ACLU sued the state on behalf of children at three Los Angeles Unified middle schools where between half and three-quarters of teachers received layoff notices. All three schools had invested in training of new teachers, only to see them dismissed because of seniority, resulting in a teacher churn and, in some cases, permanent substitute teachers.
In May, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William Highberger issued a preliminary injunction preventing any teacher layoffs for budgetary reasons at the three schools in the coming year. He said that the massive layoffs at those schools violated the children’s equal-protection rights.
Even if SB 1285 were passed and signed into law soon, it would be too late to affect layoffs for this fall. However, it would signal to relatively new teachers in low-income schools that their jobs may be safe next year.
Steinberg made clear that his bill would not require layoffs based on teacher performance, as Gov. Schwarzenegger advocates, because an effective evaluation system, created with teachers’ help, hasn’t yet been created. So seniority would continue to determine layoffs, with qualifications. Some inexperienced teachers in low-decile schools would be protected while teachers with more seniority in schools with predominately veteran teachers would get notices.
The mix would change over time, however. SB 1285 would require superintendents to assign teachers when they’re hired in ways that balance experience across schools. And they would be required to report whether the average experience level of teachers in low-performing districts is comparable to other schools in the district.
The bill also would commit the state to seek federal funds to train and retain teachers in low-performing schools.
The bill will be heard first in the Assembly Education Committee, probably on June 30.
If you find the arguments for SB 1285 abstract or unpersuasive, listen to a tearful elementary student at Steinberg’s press conference tell why he’ll miss his third grade teacher, who was one of many teachers to get layoff notices at the Edward Kemble Elementary in Sacramento. Young Cameron’s remarks are about 11 minutes in.
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So worst case this law is incentive for experienced teachers to teach at low performing schools and help those schools stay that way. Sure seems better to let principals and superintendents to decide which teachers are doing a better job of helping students.
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I’m interested in the provision that would require that the hiring of teachers would be done in such a way that experience is balanced between schools. I see that having a mix of veteran and old teachers is valuable, however, I would not like these choices to be arbitrary and simply based on seniority. I wonder if there are more details in the bill about how the teachers who are to be moved around are chosen, and what say principals have. I also wonder what the teacher’s unions’ positions on this bill are.
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Genevieve: I, too, am wondering about the unions’ response to the bills. We shall see.
The bill does not instruct principals on how to achieve a balance of experienced teachers. Perhaps a settlement to end the suit, if it can be worked out, will be more specific.
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We wouldn’t have this problem if schools weren’t facing budget cuts. Our whole education system is underfunded on the natural, but with the current economic difficulties, it is disasterous. In discussing this issue, people see to miss this point.
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Paul said: <>
Paul: I think we’d all like to see that… if only they knew how to reach that decision perhaps we wouldn’t be in such a predicament. My experience on the Teacher Effectiveness Task Force in LAUSD leads me to conclude that we have no meeting of the minds about what good teaching looks like and the number of teachers to whom our administrators give shining reviews (if any evaluation at all) contributes to our practice of moving teachers around like interchangeable parts of a system. I can’t even get folks here to comply with the spirit of the Educational Employment Relations Act re: sunshining bargaining proposals.
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I wish that SB1285 included Parents and students , and peer colleague of the teachers in the evaluation process. It is better for the process to have others lens to look at the individual that aren’t apart of school structure. A students of teacher being evaluated have knownledge of what really goes on in the classroom, when asked can oral give a description of what is ir not going on in the classroom no matter what grades level. Plus, a parent of a student that being taught by the teacher also can give her observation of teacher outreach, and effective communication. A peer colleague of teacher is a must to balance out the committee. A teacher in the same grade level can give much insight on the teachers practices, etc. It is unfair to have principals and superintendents only to decide who quality or not, when they are long remove from the schools sites and practices.
Mary Johnson, President
Parent-U-Turn
http://www.californiaparents.net
http://www.21stparent.com
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If it weren’t for the influx of charter schools, there would not be so many layoffs. When are people going to wake up and see that this is the reason so many districts are in such a financial mess.
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This is the best explanation of SB 1285 I’ve heard yet. Nice job.
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WHO would want to be teacher? The answer is simple: Anyone DESPERATE for a job.
The treatment of teachers in this country has sunk to new levels. What talented individual would step into this fray and allow themselves to be publicly abused by children, parents, teachers, edu-experts and politicians?
Their pay is public. Their conduct is public. Their health benefits are public. If one reads the press, the idea was that teachers would be treated like employees in the PRIVATE sector Is this how the accountant is treated or the local dentist? Geez, why the double standard?
Teachers are scapegoats, and anyone who jumps on that cause has a mental illness.
The talented people the profession needs will not do it, and those who cannot do anything else will become leaders of our schools.
Perhaps it is time to INSTITUTE A TEACHER DRAFT. Either give 5 years to the military at low pay or 5 years to the schools.
For those in their 40’s who never did either of these things, pull them out of their jobs and make them help.
That is what education has come to in this country.
God help us.
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Bravo! I teach in another state that is also facing severe budget problems. I am also a veteran teacher and worried since I do not have enough years to retire without a substantial penalty. I keep hearing “veteran” and in some cases ‘old teacher’. Let’s be real. Getting rid of seniority means let us discriminate against the ‘OLD TEACHERS’ because they are making the most money and that is really all we care about. It will not have anything to do with evaluations which, let’s face it, are subjective as in most industries. When you have people rating other people, it is subjective and that’s the bottom line. Then comes the corruption. After all, aren’t school distrists political institutions? Lay-offs might also be determined by the ‘favorites’, ‘political favors’, nepotism, etc… So, there goes keeping the most qualified.
I am always amazed when people think you can’t get fired with tenure. It is absolutely false. Tenure is simply due process to be sure you are treated fairly. I have seen it happen on more than one occassion. If it is not happening, it is probably the adminstrators who don’t want the hassle. That becomes an administrative issue, not a teacher issue.
Finally, I have taught in a school with 80% poverty for a very long time. If I were complacent, I would be eaten alive. In the last couple of years, I have had 2 student teachers who decided at the end of their experience they did not want to be teachers. I wonder why? There is something to be said in our profession for seniority. The veteran teachers I have taught with for years are extraordinary and dedicated. Believe it or not, in my district, there are not many of us left. So, let’s not full ourselves with our politicians political rhetoric.
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