Oh, snap!
There’s a bit of a disagreement between Colorado teachers’ unions over the tenure bill making its way through the state legislature. Why? Because the state National Education Association affiliate won’t support the bill but the state American Federation of Teachers, which is admittedly much smaller, has endorsed it.
The AFT has decided to throw its weight behind the bill because of new amendments, expected to pass, that would: insert a due-process procedure for teachers that revert to probationary status after poor evaluations; maintain seniority as a tiebreaker when laying off “effective” teachers; include teacher input in placement decisions; and give “recall rights” to teachers who are laid off.
The Colorado Education Association says that since it represents more teachers its opinion is the one that should really count. “They do not represent the teachers of Colorado; the CEA does,” a spokeswoman said. That must be heartening for the 3,000 AFT teachers in the state. Teacher voice, anyone?