They claim they had to get rid of the senior teachers in Philly because the results are so bad. So why does this apply to the entire state?
Seniority for public school teachers is in the crosshairs in Philadelphia and soon will be a target across Pennsylvania.
Frustrated by the slow pace of negotiations for a new contract for Philadelphia teachers, a coalition of education and parents’ groups says it will call on the School Reform Commission Monday to immediately pull seniority off the bargaining table and give Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. a free hand in assigning staff.
The announcement urging the move, scheduled for midday Monday, is expected to rekindle fierce debate over powers granted to the SRC under the law that led to the state takeover of city schools in 2001.
“If somebody wanted to create a legal atomic bomb, this is it,” Ralph J. Teti, the lawyer who represents the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said Sunday.
On Tuesday, a bill is to be introduced in Harrisburg that would strip language from the state school code that requires layoffs and recalls to be determined by seniority.
Jonathan Cetel, executive director of the state group PennCan, which seeks to speed the pace of education improvement, said Sunday both efforts were aimed at bringing reform to “an outdated model,” in which the most recent hires are laid off first and brought back last.
There is a model for this staffing. Look at public defender budgets. Anybody care to claim that what has been done to the right to a lawyer amounts to reform? This has gone beyond union busting to outright sabotage of universal public education.