January 23, 2020
In great news, all three of our due process bills (SB98,
SB167, and SB377) passed the full Senate Education and Health Committee on
party line votes of 9-6. Thank you to everyone who called committee members,
and to Senate Democrats, who have made these bills top priorities. We ran
around this week to answer any questions and to firm up all the votes, and it
worked. There were questions from opponents, but we will be getting one-pagers
on the bills to the entire Democratic Caucus so that they’re all ready when the
bills move to the floor for debate Monday. The House versions of the bills will
he heard next week, and we are very hopeful that the House Democrats will also
be with us.
Here are some highlights from our one-pager:
These bills that are top priorities for the VEA. Together,
they reverse actions that stripped teachers of their due process rights made by
the Republican-controlled 2013 General Assembly and Governor Bob McDonnell. The
changes were part of the Republican false narrative that it was hard to fire
teachers and, since so many teachers are bad, we need to make it easy to fire
them. During a 2013 floor speech, a member of the Virginia Senate suggested we
needed “lemon laws” for teachers, and the Republicans passed exactly those
laws.
SB98 (Senator Mamie Locke):
This bill removes language allowing school divisions to
extend teacher probationary periods to five years, which allows teachers with
up to five years of experience to be fired without due process. A probationary
period for teachers had, for decades prior to this change, been three years.
Virginia is one of only a handful of states that can deny a
teacher’s due process for up to five years, an excessively long period of time.
School leadership should be able to determine within three years if a teacher
is a good fit for their school and division. Three years also allows for the
full implementation of a thoughtful and effective mentoring program to support
any new teacher.
Opponents will say that if a teacher “shows promise” after
three years, but the school division isn’t certain he or she is a good fit,
they will have to fire them. That is not true. After three years, a
teacher who “shows promise” can be given a continuing contract and can be fired
at any point, but is granted due process. This isn’t about helping a third-year
teacher; this is about not wanting to grant due process to a teacher in the
fourth or fifth year.
SB167 (Senator Barbara Favola):
This bill doesn’t seek to change the reasons for which a
teacher can be fired. It simply removes the current definition of incompetency.
The VEA worked with the VSBA to reach agreement on this approach.
Incompetency, as defined in this section of Code, does not
give local school divisions the flexibility to support teacher performance
while also determining, on a case-by-case basis, if the teacher is, in fact,
incompetent. It also includes language not germane to the definition since a school
division cannot employ a teacher who fails to meet the endorsement
qualification.
A teacher who receives one unsatisfactory evaluation,
especially one that relies heavily on student test scores, should not
automatically be considered incompetent.
SB377 (Senator John Bell):
This restores the three-person panel as an option for school
boards in teacher grievance cases. Current language only allows for these
hearings to be before the school board or in front of a hearing officer
appointed by the school board. That stacks the odds against the teacher and
allows the school board to very quickly and easily fire a teacher. We know that
many of the hearing officers are biased against the teacher and are, sometimes,
former superintendents. This has been a legislative priority of the VEA for
years. Interestingly, when we try to find teachers who had a bad hearing with
either a school board or hearing officer, we struggle to find stories.
Overwhelmingly what we hear is that teachers facing dismissal or other
discipline simply resign when they realize the court is stacked against them.
Even worse, since 2016 we have seen a significant increase of cases where a
teacher who is dismissed is automatically referred to the VA Board of Education
for license revocation. The stakes are too high to not make sure teachers get a
fair hearing.
VEA Lobby Day and Rally
We are just a few days away from our Fund Our Future Lobby
Day and rally. Make your plans now to be in Richmond! Click here to see theschedule and here to let us know you are going to be there.
