The mass firing of teachers has just begun...

“It’s all about the economy, stupid.”  Beware, the firing (not laying-off) of all the teachers in a school or a school district is all about saving money, not about the quality of education.  Come May or June, the school district may rehire some of the teachers, but I don’t expect they’ll hire the great teacher who worked hard to earn a doctorate and has dedicated twenty-five years of her life to the children in that district.  Nope, she’s too expensive.  They’ll hire cheap replacements, new graduates with bachelor degrees.

Blaming all of the woes of the public school system on tenure is totally inadequate.  Tenure originated so that teachers would have academic freedom and job security.  In other words, teachers couldn‘t be fired for teaching something controversial such as Huck Finn or at the whim of a parent or administrator.  (Now, even this has been taken away with the dictates of No Child Left Behind where teachers must teach to a test.)  Let’s not forget that tenure came into the public schools during the suffrage movement of the 1920s when female teachers could be fired for getting married, being pregnant, or wearing slacks.  (My first job in a second grade classroom in 1972 coincided with the first year the women teachers in that elementary school district were allowed to wear slacks.)

Am I in favor of “the dance of the lemons,” as former Governor Schwarzenegger called the moving of “bad” teachers from one school to another?  Of course not!  Education has been my life’s passion, and my hope has always been that all children receive an education that gives them a love of learning and the tools to do so.  Those tools?  They include things like a full stomach and a safe home, adults who care about them and value education, as well as computer skills, the ability to read and research, the opportunity to express their creativity, the excitement of discovery, and so on.

“Immoral, illegal, unjust, irresponsible, disgraceful, and disrespectful.”  Those words were uttered by George Nee, president of the AFL-CIO of Rhode Island after the teachers were fired there.  I echo him.  Individual teachers who are not doing their job deserve remediation, and if that doesn’t work, they need to find a new profession.  But this mass firing of teachers will not be the panacea for educational reform.

What if all teachers across the nation stopped teaching in support of their colleagues?  What if all professors did the same?  It’s time to nip this economic ploy right now or these mass firing will become the norm and not the exception.  Don’t think it won’t happen to you because you’re a good teacher or professor.  It has nothing to do with your skills.  It’s all about the economy.