Picking up pieces from two failed attempts to rewrite the law on teacher dismissals, the California School Boards Association will lead this year’s attempt to make it easier and less expensive to fire teachers accused of serious misconduct and sex crimes against children.
State Sen. Lou Correa discusses SB 843 at a Sacramento press conference on Wednesday.
At a press conference Wednesday, the School Boards Association (CSBA) and Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, presented Senate Bill 843. It would shorten the time it would take to fire a teacher accused of “egregious” misconduct, including sex crimes, abuse and immoral conduct, and expand the ability to gather more evidence to support the allegations. It would also give an administrative law judge the sole authority to hear those cases instead of the current setup of a three-person hearing commission that includes an administrative law judge and two educators.
“Sadly our current process to dismiss such predators in the classroom is usually bogged down by complex requirements that are unfair to the victim and the public,” said Correa. “Yes, let’s keep due process but let’s not forget the victims, the children.”
Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill (AB 375, by Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo) with some of the same provisions, calling it an “imperfect solution” with “procedural complexities” that could create “new problems.” Correa, the new bill’s author, and CSBA said they were responding to the governor’s invitation to pursue a better bill. Since CSBA had actually opposed AB 375 and lobbied