Frontier Centre

Nothing is more important than giving our children a good education, but getting rid of bad teachers can be very difficult. A recent court case in California may change that in the United States. A judge in Los Angeles has declared as unconstitutional, the sections of those laws that give teachers tenure within two years, protecting them from dismissal, and allowing lay-offs only on the basis of seniority. Lawyers for a group of students argued successfully that the laws violate their rights to a quality education and equal opportunity to succeed, because they keep bad teachers in the classroom and push good ones out. In both Canada and the U.S, firing a teacher requires years of documentation, costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, and is still not guaranteed to succeed. In Alberta recently, a teachers’ association committee called for a two-year suspension for a teacher who terrorized students by kicking furniture and throwing objects at them. The case shows that even grossly inappropriate behaviour