Tackling the politically charged subject of tenure, school reformer Michelle Rhee told a Florida Senate committee Wednesday that teacher-protection rules undermine quality education.
"It's not due process. In practice, the problem with tenure is that it makes it impossible to remove bad teachers," said Rhee, the former chancellor of schools in Washington, D.C.
"We have created these bureaucracies to the point that you must meet a criminal standard to fire a teacher," Rhee told the Senate Committee on Education PreK-12, chaired by Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville.
Teacher tenure remains a lightning rod at the Legislature, which last year passed a bill abolishing it in Florida's K-12 system. After then-Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the measure at the urging of the Florida Education Association, Republican lawmakers vowed to revisit the issue this year.
Sen. Wise's newly introduced Senate Bill 736 would revise provisions related to the evaluation of instructional personnel and school administrators, and require the Department of Education to approve district evaluation systems.
Currently, teachers in Florida's public schools generally are granted tenure after three years on the job. Rhee, by contrast, favors performance-based systems that would retain and financially reward teachers whose students make learning gains.
Rhee, who last year launched a national reform organization called StudentsFirst, said Florida is not alone in the use and abuse of tenure rules. Across the country, she said, "only a tiny percentage of teachers is fired compared to other professions."
"We have children languishing in the classrooms of ineffective teachers," she noted.
But Rhee, a former teacher, stressed that she was not anti-teacher -- an epithet reflexively hurled by teacher unions at anyone who dares to call for more accountability in public education.
"This is a problem with the system, not the people," she said.
From the colleges of education to harried principals on the front lines, Rhee said teachers are not getting the training, guidance or support they need to improve and excel.
"I am very disappointed with the majority of teaching colleges. They are not actually preparing teachers for the rigors that teachers face every day in the classroom."
Relating a personal story, Rhee said that as chancellor she would interview newer teachers to ask how they measured their success.
"They would say things like 'if the kids like me' or 'if the parents like me.' They never made any mention of growth in student achievement. They had no clue about how to measure it," Rhee related.
As for principals, who typically are responsible for assessing faculty performance, Rhee said, "The most effective principals are never in their office. But the bureaucracy requires them to spend a disproportionate amount of time doing operational things instead of instructional things."
Gov. Rick Scott, who reportedly had approached Rhee about becoming Florida's commissioner of education, retained her as an ex-officio adviser on education issues.
Concluding a whirlwind day in Tallahassee, Rhee wrapped up with testimony at the House K-20 Competitiveness Subcommittee, where she spoke on other education topics:
CHARTER SCHOOLS: Rhee urged "equalized" funding and the first right of refusal to unused public-school buildings. "School districts shouldn't hold all the cards," she said, but "Many [school] officials don't want the competition."
SCHOOL VOUCHERS: Supporting school vouchers in Washington, D.C., Rhee said, "I surprised people because I was a Democrat. But my job was not to preserve the school district." Rather, she said, "it was to provide the best educational options for all students."
D.C. SCHOOLS: While acknowledging that the city's schools remained troubled, Rhee said the district registered "more academic growth in two years than in the decade before" she took the helm. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Rhee reported that D.C. schools went from "dead last to leading the nation in reading and math gains. We were the only jurisdiction in which every subgroup [of students] improved."
MOVING TEACHERS: Any program that relocates teachers to other campuses must be mutually constructive, she said. "Both the school and the teacher must agree it's a good fit. 'Forced-place' moves don't work."
FUNDING: The United States, Rhee noted, has doubled the amount of money it spends on education in inflation-adjusted dollars. "When I got there, Washington, D.C., schools were spending more money [per student] than any other school district in the country. So, obviously, money alone is not the answer."
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
