In California, courts have eviscerated tenure and seniority rules that keep ineffective teachers employed while forcing schools to fire the best new teachers during layoffs. It’s a good start. But public sector unions have crippled schools and government administrations just like their private sector counterparts drove GM into bankruptcy. More must be done and it looks like New York might be the next target for reform. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Last month, the New York state attorney general filed a motion to combine two related New York cases, one filed by a group called the New York City Parents Union and one brought by Partnership for Educational Justice, a group backed by former CNN anchor Campbell Brown.
Teachers union critics say the tenure and seniority laws that were hobbled by the June ruling protect longtime educators who are ineffective while more proficient ones with less experience face layoffs first.
One group of critics went so far as to place a full-page newspaper ad claiming teachers unions are “treating kids like garbage” and depicting a child’s legs sticking out of a trash can. The ad advises people to file suits aimed at weakening state-level tenure laws because “it worked in California.”
