Though her time in the Missouri Senate is limited, Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, intends to go out doing whatever she can to destroy public school teachers.
Missouri National Education Association (MNEA) issued the following action alert Monday:
The Senate will debate SCS/SB 806 (Jane Cunningham) on April 3. The bill eliminates the current tenure law for all teachers, and places all teachers on an initial one-year contract. Districts could choose to allow one or more teachers to have contracts of up to four years. The bill also eliminates seniority as a factor in decisions regarding reduction in force.
The bill also includes numerous mandates regarding teacher evaluation systems, such as requiring at least fifty percent of evaluations to be based on student test scores and prohibiting districts and employees from designing evaluation systems within collective bargaining negotiations. The also repeals the minimum salary law for all teachers.
The Association strongly opposes the bill. Teachers need an effective voice in their schools. Teacher tenure is just a process to address issues of concern and ensure teachers are not fired arbitrarily. Where districts face challenges with under-performing teachers, the real issue to address is establishing a quality evaluation system that provides teachers with feedback and support in improving performance and addressing concerns.
Instead of repealing tenure, Missouri NEA supports a requirement that districts establish a strong and effective evaluation system, as contained in SB 654, filed by Sen. Brad Lager.Jane Cunningham's bill is based on the false premise that Missouri schools are filled with incompetent and burned out teachers who are causing our students to fail. It also goes along with the idea that students fresh out of college with no teacher training can learn how to teach in a few weeks (Teach for America) and automatically become better teachers than those who have spent years in the classrooms.
That is a dangerous concept.
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