Editorial: New pressure for teacher quality
Published: Sunday, May. 20, 2012 - 12:00 am | Page 6E
Across the political spectrum, people agree that quality teaching is essential to student success. The National Council on Teacher Quality puts it this way: "Effective teachers matter a great deal and ineffective teachers may matter even more."
Yet in California, principals and superintendents have very little flexibility in hiring and firing teachers.
While some California governors and lawmakers have attempted changes, over the years they have run into a brick wall of entrenched interests – led by the California Teachers Association.
So now comes David F. Welch, a Silicon Valley fiber optics entrepreneur with 125 patents to his name. A product of public schools, he notes, "My success in life can largely be attributed to the effective teachers I've had." However, today he looks around and sees that too many children,