Highlights of House Bill 2011

"Debbie Downer" will not return after this post. It is Glee night, after all. :)

So, I don't want to go all political on you, but this scares the crap out of me. The following items have passed and WILL BE LAW within 90 days. Looks like the push to privatize education is well on its way. Essentially, teachers with experience can be let go at any time in order to hire new, inexperienced (read cheaper) educators, right out of college. I remember my first years as a teacher; I was terrible. It was overwhelming, and I often drove home (well after 8:00 at night) in tears. If you can't/don't/won't coach, you could be gone...even if you are a FAR better teacher than the guy they are hiring who can/does/will coach.

I'm not saying that a new teacher is bad; I'm saying that you spend so much of your day in management mode that you can't even get to teacher mode. Experience is valuable in every profession, is it not? Do I think there are some bad teachers out there? Absolutely; I think we all had one who was just punching the time-clock until retirement, but they are, by far, the exception.

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No contract dates
A school district will no longer have to issue contracts by May 15 to teachers.

Salary reductions
The May 15 statutory deadline for notice of salary reduction has been removed and school districts will now set their own salary reduction deadline.

Teachers with continuing status (those with 3+ years of experience)
A school district is prohibited from adopting policies that provide employment retention priority for teachers based on tenure or seniority.

A school district is able to reduce the salary of a teacher with continuing status in any manner. The prior statutory protection said that a salary reduction of a continuing status teacher can only occur under a general salary reduction.

The improvement time that a school district must allow a teacher to correct inadequate classroom performance is reduced from 85 instructional days to 60 instructional days after receiving notice.

Probationary teachers (those with fewer than 3 years of experience)
Probationary teachers will no longer need to be notified of nonrenewal by April 15.

Reduction-In-Force ( RIF )
A school district no longer has to give a preferred right of reappointment to a job for a teacher who has lost his/her job through the reduction-in-force ( RIF ) process.