By Len Feldman
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed into law a CTA opposed bill that purports to help schools of greatest need, but instead will actually restrict their ability to attract and retain more of the highly qualified and experienced teachers they need.
SB 1655 by Sen. Jack Scott (D-Pasadena) gives site administrators expanded powers to reject qualified teachers who want to work at low-decile schools. It interferes with efforts to improve hiring practices and keep districts from assigning educators to teach classes or subjects outside their credential areas. It also violates federal equity mandates by permitting site administrators to deny voluntary teacher transfers without having to explain why.
The bill misses the mark by wrongly identifying teacher transfer rights as the reason low-performing schools are not attracting or retaining enough experienced and highly qualified teachers. To get and keep such teachers, CTA maintains, such schools need real reforms: smaller classes; clean, safe campuses; quality instructional materials; and support from parents and principals. The new law will provide none of these incentives.
CTA members fought hard to defeat the measure, saying it’s the wrong answer to a complex problem and will do nothing to help improve teaching and learning in low-performing schools. It will in fact make it harder to get quality teachers into such schools.
“It shows once again that politicians don’t understand how public schools operate,” says CTA President Barbara E. Kerr.
In July, the California Department of Education approved a plan to monitor the distribution of quality teachers in low-performing schools. Districts have not yet had a chance to submit “equity plans” for achieving fairness in the distribution of teacher talent.
CTA’s Negotiations and Organizational Development Department is preparing implementation briefing papers, which will include bargaining strategies related to teacher transfers.