Tuck, Torlakson debate union power, lawsuit | EdSource

Tuck, Torlakson debate union power, lawsuit | EdSource:



Tuck, Torlakson debate union power, lawsuit

http://www.tomtorlakson.com/

 The two candidates for state superintendent of public instruction disagreed on the condition of K-12 education in California, the influence of teachers unions and which of them is best qualified for the job at a forum Saturday in Burlingame, the last scheduled joint appearance before the Nov. 4 election.

Incumbent Tom Torlakson cited “real progress” in restoring money to schools, shifting to new academic standards and increasing high school graduation rates to a record level as indications that schools are headed in the right direction. “This is not the time to put progress at risk,” he said at an hour-long head-to-head debate.

His challenger, Marshall Tuck, cited the need for “fundamental, comprehensive change” to improve academic performance that he said has been stagnant for 20 years – a reference to the state’s performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress – and has left 2.5 million students failing to read and write  at grade level. He cast blame on “the same Sacramento leadership” of  “insiders,  politicians and business as usual” that he identified with Torlakson.

As he has done throughout his campaign, Tuck condemned Torlakson’s appeal of a Superior Court judge’s ruling in

Vergara v. the State of California, overturning laws creating tenure in two years, governing dismissals and requiring layoffs by seniority. Those laws, he said, “have led us to a situation where we can’t have an effective teacher in the classroom” and are “crushing the hopes” of the state’s most challenged students. He cited personal frustration in having to tell a great teacher that he would be laid off, while a less effective teacher with more seniority would stay. He said he would drop the Vergara appeal if he were elected. (The case would still proceed, since Gov. Jerry Brown and the California Teachers Association have also filed an appeal.)

Torlakson agreed that when “teachers are not up to it, move them out” and said that he wrote and helped pass a law this year making it easier to fire “ineffective and abusive teachers.” The bill, AB 215, by Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo, dealt primarily with teachers charged with abuse, not poor performance. But Torlakson also said, “Teachers need a fair hearing when their job is on the line” and dismissed the Vergara lawsuit as blaming teachers for problems facing schools. The way to improve the workforce, he said, is “investing in teachers, giving them the resources they need.” He pointed to his Blueprint for Great Schools, the product of a task force he created, which makes recommendations for attracting

teachers, then training and retaining them throughout their careers.

The nonprofit, nonpartisan parents group Educate Our State and the Santa Clara County Office of Education co-sponsored the event, Tuck, Torlakson debate union power, lawsuit | EdSource: