Calif. Teacher of Year Gets Pink Slip

[IDemo]

Source: NBCLosAngeles.com

By Jonathan Lloyd
updated 12:16 a.m. MT, Sat., March. 14, 2009


LOS ANGELES -- Debbie Winsteen received California's Teacher of the Year award last year.

This year, the Burbank Elementary School teacher received a layoff notice, according to KFWB Radio. She has taught in the district for five years.

"My immediate anger, right now, is with our state legislators and the governor, and my board of education," Winsteen told KFWB. "Our fate, and the fate of our kids, is in their hands.

The third-grade teacher received the notice on the same day educators wore pink clothing and rallied outside of schools as part of a statewide protest against the wave of "pink slip" layoff notices sent to teachers as a result of the state budget crisis. Several rallies are scheduled for "Pink Friday."

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29680486/

[cobalt1999]

1. I guess they lay off teachers based on seniority and not on ability

Too bad.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Classic example of why the industrial model supported by the NEA has to go

[tonysam]

7. Actually, it is the "merit pay" propagandists who use the "industrial, business"

model in education.

The LAST thing we need is to have the Business Roundtable flaks to control our educational system.

By the way, just because California teachers get "pink slips" does not necessarily mean they will be laid off.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. Its also the NEA approach that all teachers are equal except for seniority

That doesn't pass the smell test, but has been the status quo for many years. Merit pay, skills pays, and field differentials are coming and the NEA needs to get a head of it or will be run over.

You are quite right about the getting the notice does not mean no job. Its an artifact of the labor rules in CA.

[Sancho]

15. Maybe in your neck of the woods, but you're simply wrong about many places.

I'm guessing you haven't been there negotiating contracts. Districts don't give a rat's ass about quality; administration wants to hire those who are CHEAP. I've seen the lawsuits where more experienced and better educated teachers are the ones they want to get rid of to save $'s. They also try to get rid of older teachers before they cost money with health care. In some places, I've seen systematic "poor evaluations" and loss of teachers when they develop an illness - even though there's no evidence of any change in effectiveness.

I've seen NEA affiliates (local) defend teachers in court when the district tried to dump them. In one case, an attorney anonymously took the education and effectiveness records of unnamed clients and sued the district for age discrimination. Based on performance comparisons only, the court held that there was clear evidence the district was discriminating and ordered the district to pay up! The principals were systematically giving lower observation reviews to older teachers; even if they couldn't fire them, they tried to encourage the more expensive teachers to move on...and when the teacher changed schools or districts, they often lost "seniority". In fact, teachers with multiple graduate degrees were also targets. Every objective measure of the anonymous teachers in question was off the chart; but the central office didn't want to pay for education, experience or EFFECTIVENESS. After the district lost several hundred thousand, the names of the teachers targeted (about 20 of them) were only revealed internally.

Big business running education wants a body in the classroom that costs the fewest bucks. They will pace and script curriculums for beginners and don't like highly educated, experienced teachers. The same is happening in colleges! If an adjunct is cheaper, who cares if they are any good. If a professor's lectures or coursework is well-planned and popular; the colleges will steal steal and pay a cheaper person to use the materials to teach the class. This is a common complaint when FEA affiliates represent college faculty.

My wife and I have both taught public school, private school, and in universities in three states. We have been in both union and non-union systems. We would never work in a non-union shop again. Despite the "rules" that you complain about, there are good reasons and lots of history that created the collective agreements and contracts. CBA's aren't perfect because they are compromises with lots of parties involved, but NEA here gains membership every time the politicians start doing stupid things so I hope that they keep attacking. The more objective measures and pay for skill that are put on the table, the more that teachers will make because they deserve lots more than they get.

One of our local universities hired outside business experts to prove how lazy the professors were going into bargaining. When the "report" wasn't produced, the union folks legally demanded a copy. The business consultants had concluded that the faculty were underpaid and highly efficient by business standards! That added about 2% across the board demand to the faculty offer demands! The performance measures used by the experts were fine with the faculty team as part of a merit pay system! Why, because most professors were spending more hours, more effort, and doing a better job than their counter parts with higher salaries in the business world.

NEA here in Florida has gone way beyond the simple local contracts. FEA (the affiliate) recently won a court battle over international travel of teachers and professors where the state legislature restricted folks because Jeb wanted it that way...and it didn't make sense that you could not do research or have a teacher exchange with others in perfectly safe and friendly countries.

My first "merit" offer was in 1976 in a SC school district. My total contract was $8,900. I went to the board meeting and told them I'd guarantee every kid passed the state test for $1000 a kid in my room - that I'd get no pay if they didn't pass. The board wouldn't do it! If they had, I would have made $29,000 that year! My "merit" was an offer of summer employment painting the school, and paying tuition for a graduate course or two. Districts don't really want pay for performance. It would cost them double. What they want is an excuse to arbitrarily get rid of anyone that costs too much. Many "business oriented" school boards and university trustees also want public education to be a cash cow for their own personal worth. The controlling boards, trustees, and administrators often privatize, steer contracts to themselves, hire friends and relatives, and bleed dollars away from instruction. Not all, but many NEA affiliates draw attention to the abuses and challenge the crooks.

All in all, NEA and other unions are doing a great service for the front line professionals.

[Mithreal]

16. Cheers to you and thank you for your service as a teacher and

to the DU community for this post : )

[eppur_se_muova]

25. K&R for the response, as well as the OP. nt

[roody]

44. Thank you, Sancho, for your post.

[The Second Stone]

20. ahead of it

not a head of it

[ProgressiveProfessor]

21. quite right

[nichomachus]

36. The minute you move away from seniority, teachers become political pawns

Teachers will be fired or laid off based on who their uncle or brother in law is, based on how many asses they kiss during the year, based on whether someone higher up in the system sees them as a threat, based on how many times they say "Yes, boss" during the year. Instead of doing lesson plans, teachers will have to figure out who to suck up to and how.

If you don't believe that, you've never worked in the public sector - I did, and even though we had a union, you had to be walking the corridors with your back to the wall and a butthole cover in place at all times.

[Thothmes]

38. Senority vs ability has always been

the lay off criteria when it comes to lay offs.

[gordianot]

2. Another sad day. So much for merit.

[Doremus]

29. You need to read #9.

[Booster]

3. This is just plain stupid.

[totodeinhere]

18. OK, but there just isn't enough money to pay all of those teachers.

So what would you have California do?

[krkaufman]

27. I would have California prioritize their spending differently.

I have a hard time thinking of anything with a higher priority than education, especially since it's near impossible to make up ground once students start falling behind.

If it's judged that California had enough teachers to support the number of students, then git rid of the excess; but slashing teachers simply because of budget issues is short-sighted. It is doubtful that the budget couldn't have been cut elsewhere.

[msongs]

4. or maybe if she had seniority protection she might not have been pink slipped nt

[mbperrin]

6. Actually, tenured teachers are not immune.

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2008/04/16/news/dejavu041608.txt

One was Susan O'Brien, a fifth grade teacher who left private schools to teach at Vista Grande Elementary in Tierrasanta. Her son had just been diagnosed with cancer, and she believed the public schools offered greater job security. O'Brien is now on the chopping block.

"I'm a tenured teacher," O'Brien said. "I didn't think this could happen."


Apparently, in some cases, bilingual certification is an issue:
http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/witterpitters/42249
KGET-TV
updated 2 hours, 31 minutes ago
Six teachers have been laid off from the Vineland School District and the ones chosen were picked because they don't have a bilingual credential, known as BCLAD. But the superintendent says it was a decision he was forced to make. No one should ever be happy about letting people with their jobs go, said Superintendent Adolf Wirth.

[tonysam]

8. "Tenure" does NOT equal "lifetime" employment or "job security."

I have written elsewhere on DU about the tenure myth. All tenure means is the "right" of teachers to have a hearing regarding disciplinary matters, including termination. "Hearings," though, are rigged processes which heavily favor the school districts (since they and the so-called unions, which in Nevada at least are nothing but subsidiaries of the districts), because the districts pay the arbitrators their outrageous fees. If you're terminated by a district, the chances of ever prevailing in a hearing is about on par with winning the Powerball lottery, plus you give up all your rights to sue in civil court, but in my case the union's "lawyers" didn't inform me of that.

You have far more rights as an "at will employee" than you do as a teacher.

[mbperrin]

10. You are correct, of course. Here in Texas, we eliminated all pretenses

of job security for teachers 7 years ago. Each year's contract is a single year contract with no expectation of renewal (the language used in it).

Every year, about May 1, if you're going to be rehired for the next year, a copy of the contract is put into your box at school to sign and return that day.

It says that you will be doing some sort of job for some sort of pay the next school year for this particular district, both job and compensation to be determined by schedules adopted by the school board.

So no one is ever "fired." They just don't get hired for the next year, see?

[Downwinder]

13. Of course the Superintendent gets a three year contract.

I wonder how many Coaches got pink slips?

[tbyg52]

40. I laugh at my "contract" every year when I sign it - might as well, right?

It basically says I promise to be available unless I give notice very early in the summer, but the school district promises nothing.

[Kat45]

37. That should be a big talking point in education debates.

I thank you for that information, because I've always assumed that once a teacher got tenure he or she was set for life. I'd always hear stories about how important it was for a teacher to get tenure; that until they got tenure, they weren't established as teachers. And I'm guessing that most people not employed in education believe the same thing. Because of this, I'd say that it's of utmost importance to get the fact that "tenure does not equal lifetime employment or job security" muc more well known. I will certainly take this into account when I read about education issues from now on, and I'm sure other people would as well. This can make a huge difference in public opinion, which could lead to a better outcome for teachers in the education "wars" that are starting. (BTW, I currently don't have an opinion on what should happen in education because I don't have enough information about the subject, though I am against privatization in that field and others.)

[Downwinder]

11. I'm old enough to remember when CA. had the best schools in the country.

That was before Prop. 13.

[Doremus]

30. I remember when American schools were the finest in the world.

Sadly, no longer. Not for a long time.

Beaurocrats and politicians shouldn't be allowed within 50 feet of a school nor involved in its governance.

Let the teachers TEACH, dammit. :cry:

[annm4peace]

43. I remember also

Prop 13 is the downfall of all social programs.. Education, health care, Parks and Recreation.

Instead of money going to these programs probably 2-3x more has had to be spent on Cops, Prisons.. and is bankrupting CA.

Many high tech companies complain that they have to bring in Foreign workers in Engineering, Computer Tech, Drs.. because their isn't enough trained CA workers.. but many of these other countries have free education.. a student has to make a certain grade but it is free.

With all the Repub. Governors increase cost of college education each and every year.. it has devestated the CA education system.

I can't even being on K-12 education.. and its infrastructure.

Citizens of CA have to pay attention and get involved in the Election process, and to have boycotts and walk outs.

[pattmarty]

12. Ya know what REALLY pissed me off yesterday was..............

..........Bill Maher blasting the teachers union big time. I like Bill and MOST of his beliefs, but his ignorant, crazy tirade against the teachers union (especially when the EFCA was introduced AGAIN this week in the Senate and House) I think was inexcusable. I lost an AWFUL lot of respect for Maher after watching that.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

14. He was definately wrong on that.

I think he failed to take into account the differing tax bases of urban/suburban schools, which create uneven playing fields and therefore uneven results.

[pattmarty]

33. He forgot to take in that and more. Didn't do his homework............

..........at all, like Stewart did with Cramer.

[Doremus]

31. He lost me when he bashed Obama during the primaries.

The guy doesn't really know a whole lot about the subjects he spouts off about.

[mainer]

17. What, did the number of pupils suddenly drop?

Don't those kids still need to be taught? How can they suddenly need fewer teachers?

[Faux pas]

19. Calif is a prison industry state. For years they've sacrificed

education in favor of building more prisons. When I retired from corrections 10 yrs ago, they had 24 prisons, according to wiki, they're up to 33. It never made any sense to me. I always figured it would be cheaper and more beneficial to educate kids than it would be to house them in prisons for most of their lives. Bottom line, schools don't make a profit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_state_prisons

[bluestateguy]

24. The prison guard union: That is one union that does need to be busted

Some good old fashioned Republican union busting is needed for the pampered and overpaid California prison guards.

[Faux pas]

41. I wasn't a guard, they do have it made from hiring to retirement.

When they get in trouble they get promoted. Same with the big shots, the bigger the screw-up the bigger the promotion. It's the good ol' boy way.

[bluestateguy]

22. Maybe that's where merit pay can come in

In other words, if you win a prestigious teaching award like this, you are given immunity from EVER being fired due to budget cuts.

[antimatter98]

23. Where the @$#% is the White House on this?

Dammit, where is the White House? Just one phone call.

Barak? Where are you? Just gonna let these symbolic events
pass by? Only for the banks I guess, eh?

[Cha]

39. That's right..rag on President Obama but

you could at least fucking spell his name right.

[krkaufman]

26. what the heck? Did the number of students suddenly drop?

How does a government rationalize changing the student/teacher ratio simply based on the budget?

Of all the spending that could be done, failure to properly budget for education is probably the most far-reaching and the most difficult from which to recover. Once kids start falling behind, it's tough to catch-up.

Ridiculously short-sighted.

[Igel]

32. California's special.

Last I heard, they had a minimum percent of their budget required for education. Usually they kept it at the minimum (but it's not like it's a low minimum). Reduce the budget, then you can reduce the education budget. California has very little discretion in its budget--so many special interests (yes, education is a special interest) have laid claim to it through initiatives and deprived the legislature of large chunks of control.

Lots of programs, some mandated by the feds. Then there was the class-size reduction in the '90s.

How does a government rationalize changing the student/teacher ratio simply based on the budget? Easy. It's the same for anybody else. How can you rationalize altering the amount of monetary support you give to your local waiters and waitresses, movie projectionists, store clerks and owners, based on *your* budget? You don't have money, you can't pay, so you don't use their services. It's esp. bad because of the way California kept their spending high for months past when they knew they'd have to make reductions: It makes the reductions, when they occur, much deeper. Since a lot of the budget is pre-ordained and discretionary spending isn't a huge portion, it makes discretionary spending portions of the budget more at risk.

As it is, these aren't actual layoffs. These are potential layoffs. What happens depends on the economy, how the stimulus money gets relayed to school districts, any other budget changes, etc. You have to give so much warning before laying off state employees; rather than warn the lowest possible number and get stuck when the number you need to lay off is higher, you opt for safety and warn the highest plausible number.

[krkaufman]

28. I think the "Teacher of the Year" factor clouds the issue

Getting rid of *any* teachers would seem short-sighted, unless they were already deemed to be in excess of what's needed for the current and near-term number of students. So we're OK with some subset of our kids being less educated than those before?

Teacher of the Year or not, cutting teachers simply because of budget issues seems ignert.

[jennied]

34. A friend of mine is awaiting her possible pink slip.

She's a special ed teacher here in California. She's an excellent teacher. She goes above and beyond what is expected of her. She tells me how the school will only allow her to teach math and English skills and nothing else. One day, just to see how these kids geography skills where, she pulled them one by one and asked them simple questions like "What state do you live in?" "What's the name of the country you live in" - Most of them didn't know what the hell to say. They are about to enter middle school and they don't even know what State they live in. So she's been teaching them off the required curriculum a little about geography and a little about history. Just so they can enter middle school and know a little bit more than what the school requires for them. Sigh. And they want to give her a pink slip. They want to give teachers like this a pink slip. WTF.

[edc]

35. Merit's just another word for bonus

:wtf: No public employees should ever be involved in a bonus systems. By definition, public service requires collegial and not competitive relationships. You don't run into a burning building to save they guy who wants to put your family on the street if you're a fire fighter or throw yourself on a grenade to save the asshole who gets paid more than you for the same ugly job or help the cute new teacher who's banging the principal for bonus bucks with her lesson plans or classroom management.

Amazingly, some of the same people who castigate Wall Street for this same vicious and corrupt system think it would be a great idea for teachers and other public servants. Go figure. Merit i.e. bonus pay system don't reward the brightest and the best, they reward kowtowers and ass kissers.

[mackerel]

42. So if you can't afford private school the answer is homeschooling?