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Do you want to know why California is broke?
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Mikhail Lavrenov photo: unfit teachers paid not to teach.
The Pacific Research Institute--a libertarian think tank based in San Francisco--(PRI) reported late last month that “The Los Angeles Unified School District […] spends $10 million a year to ‘house,’ with full pay and benefits, about 160 teachers deemed unsuitable for the classroom, according to […] the Los Angeles Times.”
So who are these teachers and why are they unfit to work in the state’s public schools? They bridge the spectrum from simply “inefficient [to] at worst suspects of criminal activity.” For obvious reasons such individuals cannot be put in charge of classrooms, but if that’s the case, why do they remain on the payroll at the expense of California taxpayers?
Whether an educator is just bad at what they do or has a criminal history, it’s apparently difficult to dismiss them if they’re tenured. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is aware of this inexplicable policy, and the Superintendent admits that he’d fire all of these unsuitable educators if it weren’t for the procedural difficulty involved. According to PRI: “’It's remarkably difficult to fire a tenured public school teacher in California the path can be laborious and labyrinthine, in some cases involving years of investigation, union grievances, administrative appeals, court challenges and re-hearings.’ The LAUSD has spent seven years and nearly $2 million trying to fire a single teacher, who continues to draw a salary of $68,000 plus full benefits.”
To add insult to injury, this wastefulness is nearly two decades old. In 2000 PRI published a study entitled Unsatisfactory Performance: How California’s K-12 Education System Protects Mediocrity and How Teacher Quality Can Be Improved, which pointed out that in the previous nine years (1990-1999) only one unsuitable teacher had been dismissed.
Other attempts to ease the difficulty of removing unqualified teachers have found very little support thus far. Recently, one Los Angeles school board member, Marlene Canter, gained the support of only a single colleague when she presented a proposal to change the flawed policy. Worst of all, perhaps, Canter was virtually ignored by the state Legislature. When she alerted her Senator she was told the law in question only needed minor "tweaks." To date, no action has been taken by the legislature to resolve this matter.
Is there any wonder why California is nearly bankrupt when public funds are squandered and government officials are not held accountable? Californians should reject any future attempts by their government to tax, borrow, and spend; and put their representatives’ feet to the fire until this situation and the countless others like it are rectified. If the state is to ever get its fiscal policy under control, needless bureaucracy and gross misuse of public money must be eliminated. Firing unqualified educators would be a good start.
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