Illinois House Passes Bill That Upends Teacher Hiring Practices

A bill that would drastically overhaul how Illinois teachers are hired and fired cleared the state's house late Thursday.

The bill, which now needs only the signature of Governor Pat Quinn, a supporter of the measure, would make tenure contingent on student achievement and limit the collective bargaining rights of teachers unions by making it harder for teachers to call a strike. The bill also gives Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel the power to extend his city's school day and makes it easier to dismiss teachers deemed ineffective based on student achievement.

In passing the bill, Illinois becomes the latest in a slew of states including Florida and Wisconsin to overhaul the union rights and evaluation methods of public-school teachers in light of large budget gaps, looming layoffs and pressure from the Obama administration to focus on teacher accountability.

"Clearly this is a moment of opportunity for those who would like to bring to an end what they might see as the stranglehold of seniority to district bargaining," said Linda Darling-Hammond, an education professor at Stanford University and education adviser to President Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. "We should be asking why these layoffs are happening anyway, why our country is abandoning its public schools," she added.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan lauded the Illinois law in a statement. "Illinois has done something truly remarkable and every state committed to education reform should take notice," he said, adding:

Business, unions, educators, advocates and elected officials all came together around a plan that puts children ahead of adults and paves the way for meaningful education reform. For some time now I have been saying that tough-minded collaboration is more productive than confrontation and this is the proof. I respectfully urge Governor Quinn to sign this quickly so that Illinois can put these landmark reforms to work in the classroom.

The bill passed despite objections from the state's three teachers unions. The Chicago Teachers Union withdrew its initial support after the bill's passage in the Senate, pointing to passages that make it harder to call a strike and limit their collective-bargaining rights.

During Thursday's session, the house also approved a budget that would cut education funding throughout the state.

Comments

[jlive2003]

02:27 AM on 05/17/2011

The biggest problem with the new law is conflict of interest. The school administrators have an interest in holding down costs. More experienced teachers are more expensive. But the school administrators have a voice in evaluations. So, they have an incentive to evaluate teachers not based on their ability but based on their cost. That is a conflict of interest that is likely to end up hurting both experienced teachers and students. Unless performance is evaluated by a neutral party or in some way that cannot be directly influenced by the administrators, the result is going to be a lot of more experienced teachers being fired.

[presenseOfcolor]

04:15 PM on 05/16/2011

I think the entire educational system needs to be rethought, but not at the expense of the teachers nor the children.
When a teacher can no longer teach beyond a syllabus without risking extreme censure, and that same syllabus is clearly biased and not educational in the minds of many teachers yet there is no other option but to teach it. Then the problem is in the school boards and in the DE of each state as well as the National DE.
Our teacher put in arduous, and fitful hours striving for the most part to teach every student to that students capacity to learn and then some. Teachers live, eat, and breathe their work for months on end, yet having the responsibility to educate our often unruly, disrespectful children they are woefully under paid.
The teachers unions, though handy in defending what's in the bargaining agreement, aren't much use beyond it's scope. And even the teachers are wise enough to know that the heads of their unions are not necessarily on the teachers sides if the chips go down. teachers feel overwhelmed, under armed, and are frustrated, just like the rest of America.
I'm just a conservative, not a teacher, and this was just my observations based upon speaking to friends of mine who are teachers.

[jlive2003]

11:42 PM on 05/15/2011

Dear NEA:

Please call for a national teacher strike. Attacks on teachers are not constrained district by district or even state by state. The response needs to come very soon and be very large. Teachers should stop simply taking this abuse.

[altohone]

03:58 PM on 05/15/2011

Privatizing for profit from Rahm? Who would have guessed he would be antiunion?

Dems in Illinois are not too bright.

[Martha T]

02:07 PM on 05/15/2011

Yeah Arne and Rahm are such supporters of education....what a farce....Arne is a big fan of teachers, as long as we work for nothing in his kids charter schools. President Obama, you really are lacking in perspective when it comes to your education policy. I am so sorry that the NEA endorsed you so early. I have had it.

[dmgoss]

11:05 PM on 05/14/2011

Wow, Secretary Duncan, guess that whole "I respect you, teachers" business really was just some random hot air. Looks like it's time to line 'em up against the wall.

[euell]

06:47 PM on 05/14/2011

The reason US schools are in decline and approaching crisis mode is plainly obvious and hard to admit. Populations with lower levels of intelligence have far more children than their gifted peers. This also explains the rapidly vanishing middle class and works in favor of the tiny minority at the top. The new model will be comprised of cheap desperate labor and a 3rd world social heirarchy. We could turn the ship around now but the deck is pretty much swamped.

[Protocolor]

08:14 PM on 05/14/2011

Yeah, I've seen the movie "Idiocracy" too. It is pretty funny until you realize it is actually happening.

There's a nature vs nurture dynamic at play as well, however. A great many of the people in America who are stupid are not that way because their brain has evolved to be smaller, but because they were lazy and didn't pay attention in school, they watch FOX News, and they have been programmed to believe in fairies, angels, gods, benevolent capitalists and whatnot.

In theory, education can help these people, and in the process save the nation. In practice? I just don't know....

[eventhorizon66]

04:05 PM on 05/16/2011

I think euell is referencing "The Bell Curve" which is being realized. FOX News viewers have far less to do with the lower IQ levels than the rapidly increasing population that watches Telemundo.

[presenseOfcolor]

04:47 PM on 05/16/2011

@protocolor
I'm a conservative, I have a great personal relationship with GOD, yet I'm also Mensa. Additionally I'm educated, and a proponent of small government. I'm not anti-teacher, nor anti-union if it quits playing politics (but I don't want ANY PACs nor 501c3s at all), I can discuss Multi-dimensionalism, or string theory, or any number of other ideas if you wish too. Sadly you statement is proof positive that intelligence does not equate to wisdom. Luckily I don't usually make blanket statements, save to say the only blanket statement that is true is the one saying that blanket statements are not true.
Which is why Event Horizon is a friend of mine, whereas you are not, yet.
I think you probably are a very smart person, but your statement does not reflect your intelligence as well as you might wish it too.
Buy heirloom not hybrid, peace between us.

[crookedcountyillinois]

02:04 PM on 05/14/2011

This bill doesn't do enough to reward good teachers, though it's a move in the right direction when it comes to disciplining bad teachers.

They should have consulted with Wis. Gov. Scott Walker. He seems to be moving his state in the right direction.

[Martha T]

02:12 PM on 05/15/2011

yes he is.,..right over a cliff.. Teachers evakuated strictly by test scores is ont the way to go. Yes, there are bad teachers, but there are many many more disenfranchised parents who do nothing to push and discipline their children. What a joke this country has become. The people who are in the trenches, doing the work that YOU and many others wouldn't even think of doing for the pay or work conditions, are the ones making the rules without knowing what it takes to be a teacher or what is confronting us every day. What a mess people like you who believe that punishing teachers instead of consulting them to fix the problem, have gotten us into. But thanks to the believers of that teachers are the problem are successfully turning our educational system right over to our corporate masters. Thanks. Hope you kids, if you have any, aren't planning on a healthy, happy , comfortable future.

[presenseOfcolor]

05:07 PM on 05/16/2011

@Martha
I'm a conservative. First I want to thank you for your hard work and dedication in teaching my children, I know you own your work day and night for months on end. I also know you are woefully underpaid.
I know this because I have friends who are public school teachers.
I know that you have constraints put upon you by the school boards, usually full of bureaucrats that have no divested interest in education other than in controlling it. Are you satisfied in your syllabus? In how you are constrained in teaching your students? Where are the issues extemporaneous to the financial ones that hinder you the most in preforming your work to your utmost satisfaction? How can I, we the American people, parents help you to achieve what you desire, the complete education of our kids?
FYI, I'm a conservative who requires integrity before ideology, thusly my micro bio.
I don't like the Unions being PACs, but I want a level playing field for everyone which us why I support having no PACs nor 501 c3s at all. I do understand why unions are important, and don't support the removal of unions from representing people, but they should confine it to those areas between employer and employee, on the most intimate levels, locally.

[crookedcountyillinois]

07:20 PM on 05/16/2011

If you don't like the work, don't do it.

Teachers should stop complaining...

[jlive2003]

12:11 AM on 05/16/2011

It is the parallel of fixing budget deficits exclusively by cutting spending. We cannot solve our problems just by cutting.

[crookedcountyillinois]

07:22 PM on 05/16/2011

We can fix the government problem by cutting spending. The rest of society's issues will have to be solved by people.

[presenseOfcolor]

08:35 PM on 05/16/2011

@jlive2003
True, but there is some government that should be gone altogether, like the TSA, or in my opinion the Department of Homeland Security.
Further more, and on a snarky note, maybe we can get rid of everyone in the department of Health, that has a body mass index higher than what they recomended we should have. I've a feeling the number of polyester wearing, doughnut snarfing, permanently chair bound inefficient people seeking unemployment insurance would rise sharply.
IMHO, if we cut and culled all the excess and inefficient baggage in the Federal Government, and went after the estimated 187,000 federal employees who didn't pay their taxes this year that we'd have a fairly good start on balancing the budget.

[Protocolor]

12:23 PM on 05/14/2011

Take this prediction to the bank: School districts will begin to petition Congress for more H1B1 visas so they can recruit teachers from the slums of Calcutta and Bangalore.

Remember that you heard it from Protocolor first.

[MaryfromIL]

12:59 PM on 05/14/2011

More likely, they will have a video screen instead of a teacher in front of the class. Then the teachers from India will be teaching them from that screen. The students will enter their answers electronically, like American Idol. All that will be needed is a minimum wage person to keep the kids in line while they watch the video.

This is what corporations do now (without the minimum wage person), it's totally doable today. And don't kid yourselves, the Indian professionals are very, very good.

[Protocolor]

05:42 PM on 05/14/2011

The video screen teaching is further in the future after the public schools are closed and education is contracted out to corporate for-profit McSchools. In the interim while local school districts try to stay functioning on what they can attract for $25k/year, the big noise will be about H1B1s.

Meanwhile, American teachers who have figured out what is really going on here will be working on the rich side of Bangalore teaching India's elites (for example). The world's disposable kids will get the robo-teachers... those would be your kids.

Don't kid yourself; your McSchools scheme is not going to bring you the joy and tax relief that you fantasize about. You'll end up paying more for less, even as the educators salaries and benefits decline. Public schools' primary mission is helping kids. Corporate McSchools' primary mission is making money. All of your efforts at school ratings, accountability, performance tracking will come to nothing as the giant education corporations that will come to be begin buying off politicians in exactly the same way that oil and insurance corporations buy off politicians now.

Enjoy the mess you're creating!

[brianartstar]

11:36 AM on 05/16/2011

Mary,
I fear that you are right. This, however, removes what is American from education - social interaction that leads to social mobility for some kids. India is a country with "too many people", and does not have to tolerate kids who learn differently from those in the main stream. Children who struggle will be left behind, or tracked into a less challenging curriculum. Our American society will be informed and shaped by a very different culture, one with a more rigid caste system than most Americans will be comfortable with.

[ETexOpinion]

11:37 AM on 05/14/2011

What teachers know: Unions can disappear, salaries based on student scores can be implemented, and every current teacher in America can be replaced with another person (preferably those who lay blame for student failure on schools) and student achievement WILL NOT IMPROVE.

[Ed Hammer]

09:20 AM on 05/14/2011

More smoke and mirrors by Illinois politicians. Teachers deserve better. They have one of themost important jobs in America and the politicians messed it up to distract from their connivery.
Cop vs. Teacher
By Ed Hammer
The Tribune produced a list this week of 10 stressful jobs . . .You have not seen the devil face to face until you've spent a day in a classroom
See more : http://www.beachwoodreporter.com/politics/cop_vs_teacher.p

[sanddc]

08:43 AM on 05/14/2011

A person these days will gets better benefits and more respect for working for the drug cartel than being a teacher.I feels for the teachers of today. When I was a child a teacher was placed on a pedestal next to our parents or even the minster. That why in 60/70s there were so many teachers coming out of college because it was a respected and a good paying career.A teacher should be one of the highest paying job in America. I would say teachers shapes more people careers in this country than most of the parents.

[Sagrimore]

11:01 PM on 05/14/2011

In the 60s and early 70s there were a lot of teachers coming out of college in part because teachers were exempt from the draft for the Vietnam War.

But you're right, teachers get little respect. But then, neither do the other jobs that have been traditionally women's jobs -- like nurses and secretaries.

American students rank near the bottom in math and science when compared to the rest of the developed world. And American teachers seem to receive far less respect than their counterparts in other countries. I can't believe that there isn't a connection.

http://4brevard.com/choice/international-test-scores.htm (from a pro-school choice website)

[Mountain Momma]

02:20 AM on 05/14/2011

Where exactly does Arne see the collaboration in that bill? I'm fairly certain there was no collaboration there by the largest stretch of the imagination. Sorry, Arne, but apparently my undergraduate teacher ed students have a better understanding of collaboration than you do - maybe you need to take a few classes.

[MaryfromIL]

11:11 PM on 05/13/2011

My lord, why would anyone listen to anything Arne Duncan has to say? Chicago didn't get rid of him because he was doing such a great job!

[Debater60660]

11:45 AM on 05/14/2011

Chicago did not get rid of him. Obama stole him. He can come back any time.

[MaryfromIL]

12:29 PM on 05/14/2011

You are right, he was a political appointee. Of course they didn't get rid of him. I just assumed they did because of his performance.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/28/AR2009122802368.html

[dasunx]

07:42 PM on 05/13/2011

This is what happens when a State Legislature becomes honest with the facts..........When the Republican States faced this same problem they were hung out to dry by the Liberals..... But being broke is the same in both lauguages, Dem and Republican.

[changing]

11:33 PM on 05/13/2011

I agreeo so sick of the unions and others pretending like the destruction of public education is okay if done by Dems.

[Martha T]

02:19 PM on 05/15/2011

what does your post mean? What right minded person , DEM or REP should be applauding the demise of public education? I guess I just do not understand your post. I am against EITHER party or belief network that is devaluing educators who toil every day, getting sucker punched by opportunists who see nothing but profit in our children, while making sure they are neither successful nor are guaranteed comfort in their future. and I am one of those educators...I am sickened and disgusted by how I am devalued and intimidated every day by politicians and the members of the public who do not have an idea what we deal with every day...with little or no support