Thursday, February 23, 2012

House Education Committee approves bill to eliminate teacher tenure, allow vouchers

An omnibus education bill, which would eliminate teacher tenure and implement vouchers passed the House Education Committee by a 13-9 vote Wednesday.

The bill, sponsored by the commitee chairman, Rep. Scott Dieckhaus, R-Washington, calls for the following:

1) repeals teacher tenure for all new hires and eliminates use of seniority in reduction in force,
2) repeals the minimum teacher salary for teachers with Master's degrees and ten or more years of teaching,
3) contains a tax-credit style voucher for students of unaccredited districts to attend private schools,
4) adds charter school expansion and accountability similar to HCS/HB 1228 (Tishaura Jones),
5) creates statewide virtual district school and virtual charter school open enrollment,
6) includes provisions allowing accredited districts to establish class-size capacity standards with regard to student transfers from unaccredited districts,
7) contains the provisions of HCS/HB 1174 (Mike Lair) to allow the State Board of Education to hold a hearing and act to revise the governance of a school district when it becomes unaccredited, rather than automatically lapsing the district after two years, and
8) contains the provisions of HCS/HB 1043 (Mike Thomson) regarding distribution of school formula funds when the formula is underfunded.

In a legislative update issued Wednesday night, MNEA indicated it would issue an action alert within the next few days since the legislation is expected to come before the full House sometime next week.

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