Teachers win in part
Published June 5, 2015
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, June 5, 2015.
Career teachers won an important legal victory Tuesday when the N.C. Court of Appeals said they can’t be stripped of tenure.
New teachers aren’t protected, the court said, giving the legislature a green light to end career status for future teachers.
North Carolina enacted a career status law in 1971, guaranteeing teachers protections against dismissal for arbitrary reasons. They can be fired, but only for specified reasons after due process. In a demanding job that doesn’t pay well, tenure is one benefit that makes teaching a little more attractive. The 1971 legislature made a good policy decision to enact it.
In 2013, the legislature tried to end tenure with a measure stuck into the budget bill and never fully debated. It required school districts to identify 25 percent of their teachers, who would receive four-year contracts and a bonus if they agreed to give up their career status. Also, tenure would be eliminated for all teachers in 2018.
Dozens of school boards passed resolutions opposing the unpopular provision, and several teachers and the North Carolina Association of Educators sued to block it. They won a partial victory in Superior Court last year when Judge Robert Hobgood ruled that tenure was a vested, contracted benefit for teachers who had already earned it, but it could be denied to teachers who had not yet qualified. Both the plaintiffs and the state appealed.
The Court of Appeals upheld both parts of Hobgood’s ruling.
In a lengthy opinion written by Judge Linda Stephens, the majority concluded that teachers who had satisfied the requirements “earned a vested right to career status protections that is ... contractual in nature.” Yet, the teacher-plaintiff who had not achieved that status had no standing to sue because nothing already granted to him would be taken away.
Legally, that may be a sound judgment. Unfortunately, it’s likely to further hurt efforts to recruit more teachers to North Carolina classrooms. In an extraordinary statement, Stephens said as much in her opinion:
“We are sympathetic to Plaintiff (Brian) Link’s argument that he relied on the availability of career status protections upon satisfaction of the Career Status Law’s requirements when he chose to work as a public school teacher in North Carolina instead of accepting a job in another state, and we empathize with the thousands of other similarly situated probationary teachers across this State who no doubt share his skepticism regarding the wisdom of legislation that purports to enhance the educational experience of our State’s public school children by essentially yanking the rug out from beneath the feet of those most directly responsible for educating those children in a manner that experienced educators have warned will make it more difficult for North Carolina school districts to attract and retain quality teachers in the future. Nevertheless, this Court may not substitute its views for those of our General Assembly.”
The legislature should restore the opportunity for future teachers to earn career status, for the good of our schools.
June 6, 2015 at 11:20 am
Norm Kelly says:
How exactly does tenure/career status HELP our school system?
Why are teachers different from ANY other employee in the state?
What makes giving teachers special protections right, just because it was done in 1971?
Perhaps if NC LEADS the nation on ending tenure, the rest of the nation will see the light and follow us. Too many parents have been burned by teachers who should no longer be in the classroom but have their kids stuck with a teacher who has earned tenure. Some teachers are sitting in a special room playing cards because it is illegal to fire them. They are unqualified, have proven themselves failures in the classroom, yet tenure prevents them from being terminated. The tax payers are literally being screwed by this system. What part of this is making our schools better or better educating our kids?
What has happened in the past that makes protecting teachers so special? Why is it that teachers should be so hard to discipline? Why should it be so hard for a teacher who shouldn't be in the classroom to be removed from the classroom? Is prejudice running rampant in our school system?
And what part of teacher pay sucks so bad? Most teachers work fewer days than private sector and most public sector employees, yet get paid comparably. And stop comparing teacher pay in our state with teacher pay in other states. This is a bogus, useless comparison that has NO BEARING on anything. And every lib who does it knows that it's bogus, but it makes THEM feel good. And we all know that everything revolves around feelings for libs, and not the thought process. If we compare teacher pay, plus benefits, plus cost of living, plus non-tangibles like weather, days off, class size, etc, THEN how do our school systems compare? If libs EVER take all factors into consideration when it comes to TEACHER COMPENSATION, then perhaps their argument will be worth listening to. Until then, more blah blah blah. They know their argument is bogus, but they know that if they tell the same lie often enough, in enough places, to enough people, AND they get media-types to repeat their drivel, then some people start to believe their lie. So they keep pounding on their lie.
And, after all, it is FOR THE CHILDREN! So we MUST increase teacher pay, even if it doesn't solve the problem. Cuz we all know the lib solution to EVERY problem is to throw more money at it. AND blame Republicans for refusing to spend enough! Even though not a single lib issue has been solved by throwing more money at it, they will insist that it's the best first step. And then they will whine more that the throwing more money at it must continue that obviously the current amount didn't fully solve the problem. Look at education. Throwing money at it hasn't solved the problem. But what, exactly, is the lib solution to fixing education in our state? Simple. The same lib solution as every other lib solution. Throw more money at it. And blame Republicans for bogus cuts to education. Libs hope & pray that the majority of voters will forget that Demoncrats were the last ones to ACTUALLY cut education spending. And lib media allies are more than willing to carry this story for lib demoncrat pols!
June 8, 2015 at 9:47 am
Curt Budd says:
1) I'm not a Liberal. 2) VISIT a school. Did you or a child of yours have a horrible experience with a classroom teacher? Why the animosity?
Read the law. It reads like any employee contract, in that, if you do "bad stuff" or are "incompetent" you can be fired. All career status does, is gives teachers rights to a fair hearing, so that if say they try innovative teaching methods that work, yet the principle doesn't agree with, they can't be fired on a whim. "Sitting in a special room playing cards"?? What is your evidence? Again GO TO A SCHOOL. I assure you, the teachers at my school work their tails off at school AND at home to ensure the next generation still has a chance to succeed even though a lot of them are getting little, to no, parenting at home.
Why does comparing teacher pay in NC to other states matter? Because the FACTS are that teachers have been leaving our state for other states because the TOTAL package of pay, benefits, working conditions, etc. is BETTER. You get what you pay for. If you are okay with an inferior product standing in front of our children, then that's on you. It's about fair-market value and competition that CONSERVATIVES trumpet so loudly.
What are you personally doing to be a solution besides complain? Have you ever made a positive post? Again, GO VOLUNTEER AT A SCHOOL.
June 9, 2015 at 9:25 am
Curt Budd says:
"principal"
