Repost: Support Your Local Teacher!
Call 1.888.202.2246
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and company are attacking public education and teacher rights in a new bill that will make it harder to keep quality teachers in local classrooms.
SB 955 from Sen. Huff (R-Diamond Bar) would gut teachers’ due process rights and protections against discrimination and unfair evaluation. Like the governor’s anti-union initiatives that voters soundly defeated in 2005, the Huff bill would not save local school districts one dime and does nothing to improve student learning. Rather than focusing on the real problems facing our schools like larger class sizes and cuts to student programs, this bill simply blames teachers. It undermines teacher experience in the classroom, eliminates educators’ right to a layoff hearing, authorizes districts to ignore experience when rehiring laid-off teachers, and reinstitutes a system of favoritism and discrimination.
SB 955 is set for a hearing in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday, April 21. Your calls to members of that committee and your own state Senator can help defeat the measure. Here are some of the major elements of SB 955. It would:
* Change the non re-elect notification deadline from March 15 to June 15 of the employee’s 2nd year of probation. This does not give administrator more time to evaluate, it only gives teachers less time to look for a job.
* Eliminate the need to "pink slip" teachers and eliminate their right to request a hearing.
* Ignore teacher experience in the classroom when making layoff and rehiring decisions and create a system based on performance evaluations that may have not even been done for years. In fact, this language allows district officials to fire employees for any reason, including for speaking out on student safety and employment issues. It gives principals the power to discriminate against older teachers, setting back hard-won protections against age discrimination.
Call Your Senator and Senate Education Committee Members NOW!
Tell all Senators to vote against SB 955:
* SB 955 eliminates teachers’ due process rights and will make it harder to keep quality teachers in all classrooms.
* SB 955 undermines reform efforts by allowing favoritism and discrimination, and threatens academic freedom.
* SB 955 scapegoats teachers during bad economic times.
Call 1.888.202.2246 Right Now to Reach Your Senator
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and company are attacking public education and teacher rights in a new bill that will make it harder to keep quality teachers in local classrooms.
SB 955 from Sen. Huff (R-Diamond Bar) would gut teachers’ due process rights and protections against discrimination and unfair evaluation. Like the governor’s anti-union initiatives that voters soundly defeated in 2005, the Huff bill would not save local school districts one dime and does nothing to improve student learning. Rather than focusing on the real problems facing our schools like larger class sizes and cuts to student programs, this bill simply blames teachers. It undermines teacher experience in the classroom, eliminates educators’ right to a layoff hearing, authorizes districts to ignore experience when rehiring laid-off teachers, and reinstitutes a system of favoritism and discrimination.
SB 955 is set for a hearing in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday, April 21. Your calls to members of that committee and your own state Senator can help defeat the measure. Here are some of the major elements of SB 955. It would:
* Change the non re-elect notification deadline from March 15 to June 15 of the employee’s 2nd year of probation. This does not give administrator more time to evaluate, it only gives teachers less time to look for a job.
* Eliminate the need to "pink slip" teachers and eliminate their right to request a hearing.
* Ignore teacher experience in the classroom when making layoff and rehiring decisions and create a system based on performance evaluations that may have not even been done for years. In fact, this language allows district officials to fire employees for any reason, including for speaking out on student safety and employment issues. It gives principals the power to discriminate against older teachers, setting back hard-won protections against age discrimination.
Call Your Senator and Senate Education Committee Members NOW!
Tell all Senators to vote against SB 955:
* SB 955 eliminates teachers’ due process rights and will make it harder to keep quality teachers in all classrooms.
* SB 955 undermines reform efforts by allowing favoritism and discrimination, and threatens academic freedom.
* SB 955 scapegoats teachers during bad economic times.
Call 1.888.202.2246 Right Now to Reach Your Senator
Lighting up the State Capitol Building Pink.
