AUGUSTA – When it comes to education reform, much of the argument is based on political fiction, not fact.

Recent calls to end teacher tenure in Maine fall into that category. There is only one problem with this “reform” – Maine teachers don’t have tenure.

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Maine teachers don’t have tenure, but their jobs are protected from politically motivated firing. John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

That doesn’t stop critics like Portland Press Herald columnist Ron Bancroft, though. On March 22 he wrote: “End to teacher tenure essential to school reform.”

For the record, the word tenure has meaning for college professors and it may have legal application in some other states, but it does not apply to Maine. What Maine has is a balance of interests that has been developed over the last 100 years between the need for good teachers in our public schools and the need to protect teachers against the vagaries of local politics.

School boards represent parents and their interests in having students receive instruction from well-trained, competent and certified teachers. Therefore, the law grants them the sole authority to hire, assign, observe and evaluate them.

PROBATION FIRST

Maine provides for a two-year probationary period for all teachers, during which time school administrators are responsible to train and mentor new teachers. At the end of the probationary period, if in their opinion teachers are not worthy of retention, those teachers do not receive a contract.

Statistics tell us that close to 50 percent of all new teachers fail to survive more than five years of service. This means that the quality and stability of Maine schools is largely dependent upon a corps of dedicated professionals who elect to make teaching their profession, despite low salaries, a weak pension plan, shifting political mandates and criticism from a diverse group of so-called “experts.”

To protect the quality and consistency of student instruction, the law provides safeguards against unwarranted dismissal. For example, should a teacher be dismissed because she has a foreign accent? One of the earliest court cases on teacher dismissal involved the firing of a teacher during World War I because of a German accent.

Or, should a teacher be fired so that a school board member’s daughter could be hired? Or because of a religious belief? Or because of an individual’s political views or conduct outside of school?

All of those circumstances have happened and many excellent teachers have been fired under unworthy pretexts such as Bancroft’s claim of incompetence based on spurious political fiction, not fact. Once past the probationary period, teachers’ contracts must be renewed each year.

What Maine wisely provides are grounds for non-renewal of such contracts where there is unfitness or dismissal based upon just cause. Stated simply, school boards must provide a fair dismissal procedure in which the accusations of misconduct or poor performance can be clearly proven.

Teachers are non-renewed or dismissed on a regular basis and in most cases an agreement is reached between the parties to simply part company. Only a handful of cases go to a hearing and more than half of them are resolved in the teacher’s favor.

Contrary to Bancroft’s wild allegations, the process is not onerous or impossible. His suggestion that 10 percent of all teachers are incompetent is an insulting and scurrilous attack on hard-working professionals who are doing an excellent job of educating Maine students under difficult conditions.

Education is a complex process, that, like an orchestra, involves many different components to operate in harmony. Legislators, policy makers, taxpayers, parents, families, school boards, administrators, teachers and support professionals all have important roles to play.

If one of them is out of tune, it can cause problems throughout the system. And, like an orchestra, good schools must have training, resources and good conductors to be successful. Trying to scapegoat an individual teacher without consideration of the total environment is both simplistic and stupid.

QUALITY IN THE CLASSROOM

The Maine Education Association does not want a single classroom to suffer with an unfit or incompetent teacher. That is why MEA believes in hiring competent, well-trained and certified teachers and in mentoring, training and supporting teachers who need improvement.

We support substantive, fair and meaningful evaluations and we are willing to support an extension of the teacher probationary period from two to three years, provided that mentoring and meaningful evaluations are provided.

Most of all, we ask that those who seek to influence public opinion regarding the quality of Maine’s teachers and our public schools begin with a solid understanding of the facts and not simply espouse their opinions and political biases. 

– Special to the Telegram

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