Dorn and Duncan Jeopardize the Careers of 181 Teachers Over a Clerical Error
By David Spring.
On Saturday, August 1, 2015, KIRO News in Seattle Washington reported that the careers of nearly 200 highly qualified and highly experienced teachers in the Kent School District were being placed at risk due to a clerical error. Here is a link to their report.
Keep in mind that teachers (and students and parents) in Washington state are already forced to deal with among the lowest school funding and highest class sizes in the nation. School funding is so low in Washington state that in September 2014, the Washington State Supreme Court held the State legislature in “Contempt” for failing to follow our State Constitution which calls funding schools the “Paramount Duty” of the State legislature.
Also because of this extremely low level of school funding, teacher Cost of Living Adjustments have been canceled by the legislature nearly every year since the 1990s. This is despite the fact that voters approved an Initiative requiring the legislature to at least give the teachers a cost of living adjustment and recently passed another Initiative to lower class sizes in our schools. So the legislature is ignoring the state constitution and the will of the voters and the direct order of our Supreme Court. And because of all of this, teachers today are making about 30% less in buying power than they made in the 1990s while they are responsible for teaching in much larger classes. So our teachers in Washington state are already being hammered.
Now, we learn that 181 of our dedicated but already hammered Washington state teachers are having their careers put at risk due to a clerical error. Tell me this is not true. So I looked into it. Sadly, it is true. In fact, I hope you will keep reading as this story sounds like it is straight out of Alice in Wonderland. We will let you figure out who is playing the part of the Mad Hatter.
To be fair, I contacted both the President of the Kent Education Association and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to get their views on what the problem was. How could the careers of hundreds of teachers be put at risk due to a clerical error? And what is being done to help them?
First here is the email I received from Christie Padilla, the President of the Kent Education Association (note that she is also a teacher in the Kent School District):
You are correct that the Kent School District did not file the correct information withDorn and Duncan Jeopardize the Careers of 181 Teachers Over a Clerical Error - Living in Dialogue: