Every year for the last five years or so, school districts have sent out pink slips to certificated staff, indicating that they may be laid off.
Because of state law mandating a reduction in force information, districts end up sending out fare more than needed. Otherwise, districts cannot lay off the necessary staff to maintain adequate funding for the future.
The nature of these outdated laws stems from power union lobbies who pressed for every bureaucratic hurdle imaginable to stem teacher layoffs and protect union dues. Seniority has become the one element that protects a teacher -- not his skills, will, or the thrill of teaching.
The more local control that school districts can exercise over hiring and firing, the more power that individual schools can command when implementing yearly budgets, and the more authority that teachers can contain regarding their salary and their standing in their profession, the better off for every student and community who struggles with the yearly see-saw of teacher layoffs and hiring back.
This inconsistency is harming the whole structure of public education, a model which has been burdened with the flimsy and self-demands of the workforce and not the student.
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