February 23, 2010
"School reform", Seattle-style

Seattle legislators are trying to amend state law to make it easier for schools to remove an underpeforming principal. Should the amendment pass:

Seattle school officials eventually could demote experienced principals from schools for a "valid reason." As it stands now, principals who've worked in any school district for more than three years can't be moved down without "probable cause," a higher bar.
As things stand:
"The way that Seattle has interpreted probable cause all but grants lifetime tenure,"
The added emphasis above is on eventually, because the principals for whom there is already "valid reason" short of "probable cause" to earn placement in a rubber room would be grandfathered in. The law would only apply to principals appointed after the law goes into effect.

Nevertheless, the Seattle School District and the state principal's association complain that this would somehow make it harder for Seattle to attract "high-quality principals" (who, um, aren't the ones this is aimed at).

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 23, 2010 10:10 PM | Email This
Comments
1. Just one more reason I am looking to move out of Seattle before my kid hits school age. These mornons can have their utopia.

I don't know when we reach the point were the failure is so great and the cost so high that the education system implodes, but this type of policy certainly is moving the bar in that direction.

Posted by: ducttape2 on February 23, 2010 10:12 PM
2. I don't know how one could put their kid in Seattle schools. Thank God I got mine out of there after 3rd grade. Feminist utopia.

Posted by: Matt M on February 24, 2010 02:24 AM
3. How can they attract better principals if there are no openings?

Posted by: Vince on February 24, 2010 05:12 AM
4. I seems that public schools are, by and large, not for the purpose of education but for the purpose of being a large Government jobs bank. Quality of work isn't a criteria for employment or retaining your position within the jobs bank; you only need to have a pulse and a relatively clean criminal record.

It's not about education, it's about employment.

Posted by: Shanghai Dan on February 24, 2010 08:03 AM
5. Maybe there is hope coming after all ...

"CENTRAL FALLS, Rhode Island -- A U.S. school district has voted to fire all the teachers at an underperforming school.

The Providence Journal reports that the Central Falls School Committee voted Tuesday evening to fire every educator at Central Falls High School, including teachers, guidance counselors and the principal."

Posted by: James on February 24, 2010 08:35 AM
6. We moved out of Seattle in 1999 specifically to avoid enrolling our children in Seattle public schools. It's a community saddled with bad government and a very high proportion of very bad people (mainly leftists).

Posted by: Attila on February 24, 2010 09:56 AM
7. Shanghai Dan,

There is another more sinister purpose for public schools, and that is to indoctrinate and purposely 'dumb-down' America's children so, as adults, they won't recognize and resist covert takeover of our government by Marxist thugs. It is obvious this Bolshevik plot, hatched in collegiate schools of education, has succeeded, given the traitous scum we have in the White House and in the majority of both houses of congress.

Posted by: Saltherring on February 24, 2010 11:58 AM
8. "We need to ensure lifetime position to attract the best talent, so we can't fire anyone".

Posted by: Crusader on February 24, 2010 11:59 AM
9. This is BS. That's our WEA purchased legislature for you. As it stands we, as school districts, have it 100 times harder to get rid of poorly performing teachers. Principals are easy to part with, heck we've gotten rid of a half-dozen in the last decade......teachers on the other hand, it takes years of hard work by great principals to get rid of the poor teachers.

The legislature is playing smoke and mirrors - making it seem like they are doing the schools good, when in fact they are just hiding what they really should be doing to make the schools better.

Posted by: Doug on February 24, 2010 07:09 PM
10. "It wasn't teachers who fucked up the economy in 2008. Blame the MBA fat-cats, fire them!" - Demo Kid

Posted by: Crusader on February 25, 2010 02:32 PM
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