Senate panel approves Jindal-backed tenure bill

A Senate panel voted 6-1 for a bill toughening the requirements public school teachers must meet to earn tenure – tying job security to student performance measures and also eliminating seniority protections for teachers when financially strapped school systems face layoffs.

Thursday’s vote by the Senate Education Committee was the latest legislative victory for Gov. Bobby Jindal, who backed the bill as part of a sweeping legislative package to overhaul public education.

The same panel was holding an afternoon debate on a measure to create a statewide voucher program. That bill would let low-to-moderate income families whose children are in low-performing public schools move those children to private schools with taxpayer-funded tuition.

Similar bills were approved a day earlier by a House panel that met for 16 hours.

For the second day, hundreds of teachers unhappy with the measures filled the hearing room, hallways, the Capitol steps and overflow rooms where the hearing played on television screens.

“We need to give districts more flexibility to remove ineffective teachers from the classroom,” Jindal told the Senate panel in a brief morning appearance.

Thursday’s Senate testimony focused for much of the early day on what was commonly referred to as the tenure bill, although it’s a complex measure that also affects the duties of superintendents and principals.

The bill sponsored by committee Chairman Conrad Appel (R-Metairie) would eliminate local school boards’ roles in hiring teachers. It would limit the boards to policy-setting responsibilities while giving principals and superintendents more power to make hiring decisions without board interference.

As for teacher tenure, Education Superintendent John White complained that current tenure practice, tied to every-three-year evaluations that simply list teachers as satisfactory or unsatisfactory, fails to weed out the worst teachers or reward the best. Tenure, which makes it more difficult to fire a teacher, is earned after three years of satisfactory ratings.

The Jindal-backed bill sets up performance criteria and more complex ratings. It would require five years of “highly effective” ratings as a requirement to earn tenure and require continued evaluations. “Ineffective” performance would result in loss of tenure protections.

The bill also eliminates seniority as a guarantee of job security when school systems face budget cutbacks and layoffs. Seniority, White said, can force systems to fire less-senior, more qualified teachers.

“Since when is seniority not experience?” Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan, asked as opponents lined up to testify against the measure.

Opponents from around the state told committee members the bill lacks a way to measure the effects of poverty, classroom violence and low parental involvement in some school settings – all factors that would affect student performance and therefore, teacher job evaluations based on student achievement.

“Due to certain circumstances, beyond their control, really, they may fall short of effective,” said Sen. Eric LaFleur (D-Ville Platte), the only committee member to vote against the bill.

LFT legislative director Mary-Patricia Wray said the bill appears to violate Louisiana constitutional restrictions on the state’s role in local school system affairs. “This instrument attempts to void a contract between a local school board and superintendent,” she said.

Voting for the tenure revamp bill were Appel; Dan Claitor (R-Baton Rouge); Jack Donahue (R-Mandeville); Elbert Guillory (D-Opelousas); Mike Walsworth (R-West Monroe) and Mack “Bodi” White (R-Denham Springs).