On February 4th, PAGE President-elect Deena Hoch, a Bibb County educator, addressed a House Education Sub-Committee on legislation which would restore fair dismissal rights for teachers. She also addressed the Senate Education Committee. Her prepared remarks are below.
KEY POINTS IN SUPPORT OF HB 81 AND SB 19
I am Deena Hoch, a teacher at Weaver Middle School in Macon. I have had the honor to have been selected as a Teacher of the Year in my county and I have earned national board certification. I am also president-elect of the 54,000 member Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE). We appreciate this opportunity to speak before you.
PAGE supports HB 81 and its companion in the Senate, SB 19. We believe that Fair Dismissal is an important guarantee for all educators.
It would be a great day for education when all 1,900 plus school principals throughout Georgia are well-trained in evaluation and use a proven, research-based evaluation instrument. We would then have some assurance that the system of evaluating educators was both reliable and fair.
Unfortunately, we are far from that day. The quality of our school leaders is not consistent. Many are not trained in evaluation. Many school systems do not have a solid, research-based evaluation instrument to use. Consequently, we need to have additional safeguards so that we can be certain of fairness in the non-renewal process.
In addition to the evaluative component, we have the factor of local politics to consider. We often hear from educators who are being non-renewed simply to make way for another individual, who, for a variety of reasons, the district wants to hire.
A policy of Fair Dismissal requires that principals and school systems seeking to release a teacher who has at least three years experience must follow a set procedure for documenting the alleged failures of that teacher to adequately perform his or her duties. Principals across the state are not prevented from firing an incompetent teacher as long as they document their allegations and follow the legal process.
We agree with those who say that no educator is entitled to a job for life, but we feel very strongly that every educator is entitled to an objective evaluation and - if it should come to that - a fair dismissal process. No one - in any profession - should be fired arbitrarily.
Fair Dismissal has benefits for the students as much as for the teachers, because our public schools are facing some controversial and emotionally charged issues, and both teachers and students need to be protected from the fallout those issues create.
For example, shouldn't a teacher be protected from dismissal if he or she chooses not to report a student carrying a Tweety Bird key chain? What about a science teacher who refuses to take limited class time to discuss theories of creationism or intelligent design? Shouldn't that teacher be protected from a "political" dismissal? Recent headlines suggest that the emphasis on testing will, over the next few years, greatly ratchet up the pressure on teachers and some may well find themselves singled out for administrative attention. A strong Fair Dismissal policy seems warranted, now more than ever.
At a time when we face a critical teacher shortage, we should be doing everything we can to attract quality teachers, including letting them know that while there will be high expectations for them in terms of performance, there will also be an equally high level of objectivity in the way they will be evaluated and renewed from year to year.
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