Teachers union to sue state

by David Safier

The legislature just passed a whole bunch of changes affecting teachers, not just budget cuts. They were passed earlier but Brewer's budget vetoes eliminated them. Now they're back. And the teacher's union is suing.

First, a comment. If I'm a serious teacher planning to make it a career, I'm going to pass on Arizona. After I teach for awhile and move up on the pay scale, my district can fire me for any number of reasons and hire a couple of new teachers in my place. Two for one: what a deal! I'm out of a job, not because I'm a bad teacher, but because I'm a financial liability.

Our new slogan: "Arizona, the place to teach if no other state will hire you."

The union is using an interesting tack in its lawsuit:

The AEA contends that because the policies were approved during a special legislative session, which is supposed to have one focus — the budget, they do not pass constitutional muster.

“The constitution states when you have a special session it has a directive: to make a budget. These policy changes as they stand are not related to the state’s budget and are therefore unconstitutional,” said John Hartsell, spokesman for AEA, which represents 34,000 teachers in the state.

Here are some of the changes that seem especially problematic to me.

. . . school districts will be prohibited from using tenure or seniority as a factor in determining which teachers can be laid off. Additionally, school districts no longer have to honor seniority when they rehire.

Gone is an April 15 deadline that required school districts to notify teachers of their contract status for the following school year.

[snip]

. . . school districts are no longer required to make salary reductions equitable for all tenured employees. Districts can lower salaries for selected teachers.

One of the lures of teaching for the risk averse (put me in that category) was that you knew you were underpaid, but you had pretty decent job security, and the pension at retirement was decent as well. Now pensions are giving way to 401(K) uncertainty, and teachers can be fired pretty much at a district's whim.

So teachers are underpaid and expendable. Remind me again, how are we planning to attract the best and the brightest into the profession?