This was posted at HuffPo by Randy Turner, a Joplin teacher (and former newspaper reporter and editor).
Senator Jane Cunningham, who sponsored the bill, "was Chairwoman of the Education Task Force and served on the Board of Directors of the American Legislative Exchange Council" -- according to her MO Senate bio:
http://www.senate.mo.gov/11info/Members/D07/bio.htmhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/randy-turner/the-smackdown-of-those-sp_b_850105.htmlRandy Turner
The Smackdown of Those Spoiled Teachers
Posted: 04/18/11 01:57 PM ET
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The "Teacher Continuing Contract Act" calls for everything so-called "educational reformers" have been demanding. It eliminates teacher tenure, it makes it illegal to pay any teacher based on years of classroom experience, and it requires all public school districts to divide their faculties into a four-tier pay scale, with pay based primarily on standardized test scores.
Under the four-tier system proposed by the bill's sponsor, Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, teachers whose students score the lowest would receive the lowest pay, with the second tier receiving more, the third tier an even greater total, and then the fourth tier receiving 60 percent more than those in the third tier.
Even if all of the teachers are capable, the tiers would be required, and the bill even offers an elaborate tiebreaking system to determine who goes in what tier.
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Having teacher pay decisions turned into a cage fight, with teachers battling to see who can teach to the test best and receive a handful of gold-plated salaries, is a formula guaranteed to continue the transformation of our schools from places of learning, which they have continued to be despite the recent wave of negative publicity, to test preparation factories.
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Turner's right to point out at the end that the unanswered question is why anyone would want to become a teacher with "public education turning into a nightmarish Dickensian and American Legislative Exchange Council vision."
The bill Cunningham introduced, which already passed a state senate committee vote, will also:
abolish tenure and replace it with "continuing contracts" of 2-4 years depending on a teacher's students' performance on tests;
so away with minimum salaries for veteran teachers and teachers with advanced degrees;
ban teachers from campaigning for school board candidates (this might be payback; Turner points out Cunningham lasted only one term with her local board of education after she alienated too many teachers, students and school officials);
make all teachers who currently have tenure probationary teachers again next year; and
make the four-tier performance pay effective the following year.
Republicans are pushing a separate bill to tie administrator pay to test scores.
I'm glad Randy Turner is speaking out. This is his blog:
http://rturner229.blogspot.com/ But the column he has at HuffPo isn't on it, which is why I've linked to HuffPo.
This is a link to that despicable "educational reform" bill:
http://www.senate.mo.gov/11info/pdf-bill/intro/SB372.pdf