Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Is public willing to pay for best and brightest?

Dave Berns is a good guy and a great journalist, but his Wednesday story regarding teacher tenure and firing just got it wrong.

I think his biggest misunderstanding of the situation is that it’s nearly impossible to fire teachers. I’ve seen it done, and all it requires is a principal willing to carry out the procedure mandated by law and the contract. We call these procedures “due process,” a constitutional right protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, and it’s important because it prevents any teacher from being fired on the whim of an administrator, sometimes for reasons having absolutely nothing to do with that teacher’s performance.

The real reason it doesn’t happen more often is that, as the principal is considering terminating a teacher, he or she is confronted with this question: “And replace the teacher with whom? A succession of substitutes? Some newbie fresh out of college? Some other school’s problem?”

And why do we not have enough teacher candidates to replace bad teachers? It is not because, as Mr. Berns states, “the hiring and retention of first-rate teachers will depend on effective evaluations.” It’s because the teacher salary and benefits package in the Clark County School District cannot hope to attract the best and the brightest teachers in the U.S., those needed to replace the few School District teachers who cannot or will not hack it.

Nevadans, I’d say “You get what you pay for,” but the reality is that, given the number of truly excellent teachers in the School District, you’re getting a bargain — probably better than you deserve. What makes one think that teachers’ economic behavior when selecting jobs is any different from that of doctors, lawyers, engineers and executives?

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