This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
We admire the dedication of Utah teachers who have to put up with the largest class sizes in the nation, low pay, dwindling benefits and a sometimes-hostile, sometimes-indifferent Legislature. Teaching in the state with the lowest per-pupil education expenditure in the country can be a frustrating, thankless task.
And, while we often find fault with how legislators in the Beehive State try to micromanage education, we nevertheless agree with the argument behind SB73. That bill, now on the governor's desk, says school districts must consider performance evaluations and staffing needs instead of only seniority when deciding whom to lay off during hard economic times. Gov. Gary Herbert should sign it.
School districts in Utah often follow a policy of laying off the most recently hired teachers and other personnel. Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, the bill's sponsor, said he worries that some top-quality new teachers might be the victims of layoffs, while veteran teachers, some of whom are mediocre at best, keep their jobs.
He has a point. Teacher unions, which negotiate collective-bargaining agreements with districts, often support the last-hired-first-fired policy to protect long-term teachers without considering whether or not they deserve such protection.
Legislators would like to eliminate "tenure," usually granted to public-school teachers once they complete a three-year probation. It's not technically tenure, as defined by universities, where professors are granted employment for life only after completing rigorous research and teaching requirements over many more years than three. Instead, it's a covert employment guarantee based primarily on time spent in the classroom.
Every parent, child, principal and teacher in the Utah education system knows of teachers who should not be allowed near a classroom but who, nevertheless, continue to teach. Some of these teachers are burned out from many years on the job and some are simply not suited to the often exhausting and patience-eroding task of pouring knowledge into the heads of our children.
But few teachers are forced out of the profession once they've been in it for more than three years. Usually only those who break the law or are involved in a scandal are dismissed. And even those teachers are sometimes merely shifted to another district.
Most Utah teachers deserve our admiration and our gratitude. We should not protect the jobs of those who don't.