Springfield senator compares Jane Cunningham teacher tenure bill to camel excrement

The language was colorful on the Missouri Senate floor Thursday with her fellow senators attacking the grandstanding of Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, when it comes to SB 806, her bill which would double the amount of time it requires for state teachers to receive tenure.

Getting in the best shot was Sen. Bob Dixon, R-Springfield, who, while not necessarily a fan of teacher tenure, is less of a fan of the way Mrs. Cunningham bypassed the Senate Education Committee and pushed this legislation through her General Laws Committee. From Missourinet:

But when she tried to gain final senate passage she ran into Senator John Lamping, who says there are more important education bills that should be considered first–so he would vote no.  then Senator Kevin Engler, who wants to kill tenure too, but not until teachers are protected from arbitrary actions by school board members, indicated he wouldn’t support the bill. .

And Springfield Senator Bob Dixon strongly criticized Cunningham for running the bill through her own general laws committee instead of it going to the education committee…”To try to bypass a committee that deals specifically with educations when we’re talking about an education bill…I just think that is …not unlike the substance that is referenced in the book of Nehemiah that was placed in a special part of the city after it is expelled from the back end of a camel,” he said. 

He also alluded to the proposal as “half-baked” before Cunningham interrupted him to withdraw the bill from consideration. 

Mrs. Cunningham's action does not mean the bill is dead or that the attack on teacher tenure is over. The problem Dixon and Senate Education Commitee Chairman David Pearce, R-Warrensburg, among others, had about Mrs. Cunningham's bill is that it is calling for a major change in education policy without even going through the committee that has been established to handle such issues.