{"id":897,"date":"2005-11-04T15:29:15","date_gmt":"2005-11-04T15:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2006-09-28T12:09:26","modified_gmt":"2006-09-28T12:09:26","slug":"yes_on_74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=897","title":{"rendered":"Yes on 74"},"content":{"rendered":"

Proposition 74<\/a> would lengthen the duration of the “probation” period during which new schoolteachers could be dismissed at the end of the year without cause from two to five years.<\/p>\n

After this period, dismissing teachers with unsatisfactory ratings would be simplified.<\/p>\n

Job protections are often a good thing; the notion that one’s livelihood depends on the whims and mood of one’s supervisors isn’t a good thing. But conversely, at some point the web of protections gets so strong that it’s virtually impossible to fire bad employees, and around that time the enterprise begins to be run for the benefit of the employees rather than the other stakeholders.<\/p>\n

In vastly simplified blog-speak, that’s a big part of what has happened to public schools in much of the country. They are no longer run primarily for the benefit of the children or community, but instead have become the captives of their employees.<\/p>\n

My ex’s husband (who is a great friend and I usually call my “brother-in-law”) left his career in Hollywood to become a high school teacher at a high school in a near-bankrupt poor school district about five years ago.<\/p>\n

When we get together to make plans for Littlest Guy, we talk a lot about politics, and his work. He’s a dedicated progressive, can’t understand my support of Bush or the war, but – to put it simply – sees the need to significantly shake up and reform the public education establishment.<\/p>\n

He’s voting for 74, as am I.<\/p>\n

Teachers (and others) deserve some protection against whimsical or retaliatory firing. But our children, the schools and the taxpayers who pay for them deserve a staff that isn’t marking time until retirement with little concern for the quality of their work – for the quality of education our children get.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armed Liberal and his liberal teacher “brother in law” support Proposition 74.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}