MSBA lobbyist: Teacher tenure bills are dead for 2012

Of course, nothing is ever dead in the Missouri legislature until the final bell rings in three weeks, but in a weekly update video, Missouri School Boards Association lobbyist Mike Reed says teacher tenure reform is dead, in both the House and the Senate, for the 2012 legislative session.

The segment about teacher tenure comes in the second half of the video.

The closest the so-called tenure "reform" came to passing this session has been SB 806, sponsored by, who else, Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield. In her last hurrah before being put to pasture (at least for the time being) next month, the senator initially pushed the complete elimination of tenure protection for teachers.

It appeared the tenure talk had been put behind the Senate, when it approved the suggestion by Education Committee Chairman David Pearce, R-Warrensburg, to have a committee study teacher salaries. The attack on tenure resumed when Sen. Tom Dempsey sponsored a successful amendment increasing the time it takes tenure from five years, already one of the longest in the nation, to 10, which would been far more than any other state requires.

Even that fell by the wayside this week, when a number of senators, including Bob Dixon, R-Springfield, shot down the bill, primarily because Mrs. Cunningham had rammed it through her General Laws Committee, bypassing the Education Committee, which did not have time to even study the effects the changes would cause.