John Thompson: As Due Process for Teachers is Removed, Secret Files and Blacklists Return
Guest post by John Thompson.
The essence of due process is simple. When a teacher or any other employee is sanctioned, there will be some paperwork. Due process means that a signature is attached certifying that the statements of record are not false. Tenure provides a procedure for the teacher or his representative to answer those charges.
In 2008, Michelle Rhee would not even abide by the procedure for terminating 75 teachers without tenure, even though a principal's recommendation was all that was necessary. The Washington D.C. (DCPS) dismissals were then overturned by an arbitrator because the district did not follow the simple task of notifying teachers of their shortcomings.
In 2009, Rhee terminated 266 teachers and support staff after hiring some 900 new teachers. It was claimed that the terminations were a reduction in force (RIF) due to a budgetary shortfall that was unforeseen when Rhee went on a hiring spree. It was subsequently revealed that Rhee knew that the DCPS had no budgetary shortfall, so apparently it was a pretext for the mass firings. A music teacher sued claiming that "his firing was concocted by using a misapplied or non-existent job title to enable his poor evaluation and subsequent firing." The case is now in federal court.
An even bigger outrage occurred in the New Orleans Recovery School District (RSD) when reformer Paul Vallas fired about 7,000 teachers after Hurricane Katrina. In 2014, a federal appeals court ruled that Vallas conducted an improper RIF. The way it was done "denied teachers their