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Legislature's Democratic majority expected to give cool reception

Gov. Christie Wednesday sent to the Legislature a package of seven bills that he maintains would get at the root of problems in New Jersey’s public schools by changing the teacher tenure system to reward the best and brightest educators.

The governor also maintains that his proposals – the “Christie Education Reform Agenda” – tackle public education's engrained problems from the top-down by changing a system that fails tens of thousands of children every year, despite high levels of education spending. He believes the proposals would bring to an end a system that lacks accountability and implements an evaluation system that would help differentiate effective teachers from ineffective ones.

“For too long, we have failed to adequately and honestly judge the performance of New Jersey’s teachers based on the only outcome that actually matters – how well our children are learning,” Christie said. “Even as education spending has risen dramatically, too many students in too many schools and districts continue to be failed by the system.

“If we are going to bring greater accountability to public education and turn around the 200 perpetually failing schools where 100,000 of New Jersey's children are trapped, then we must be unafraid to challenge the broken and antiquated status quo and stand up to support the very best teachers our state has to offer,” the governor said. “These reforms will reward great teachers through better pay and career paths, allow us to identify the struggling teachers and get them the help they need, and put in place a multiple measured evaluation system that will provide an avenue to remove the bad teachers who are not getting results in the classroom.”

Christie’s proposed legislation calls for a statewide evaluations system for teachers and principals, change to the tenure system, merit pay for good teachers, and protecting their jobs by ending the “last in, first out” standard when teachers are laid off. It would also allow school districts to opt out of the Civil Service System.

The proposals are expected to receive a cool reception in the Legislature where the Democratic majority leans in favor of the New Jersey Education Association, the statewide teachers’ union, which opposes a new tenure idea.

Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said following the governor’s announcement, “Having excellent teachers at the front of every classroom is key to ensuring that all students are given an opportunity to achieve academic success. That is why I have been working for months with state and national education leaders on a measure to reform our antiquated tenure laws.

“I look forward to reviewing all of the governor’s education reform proposals in detail,” Ruiz said. “However, I am committed to continuing work on my tenure reform legislation, and to working with the governor and the Legislature to ensure we have a bill that supports great teachers and better ensures that all students are given the educational tools they need to be successful.”

Neither Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney (D-Gloucester) nor Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D-Essex) had any immediate comment on the proposals.

Christie called for the Democrats to take immediate action on the package.

“The most important education reform we can make, and the best way we can benefit children, is to make sure a talented, effective teacher is at the head of the classroom,” state Acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf said. “Most teachers are doing an excellent job, and we need to honor, respect and support our best teachers. But without the ability to really evaluate teachers, so that good teachers can be rewarded and ineffective teachers can be removed from the classroom, we will be stuck traveling the same path that is failing too many children. Now is the time to enact these needed reforms in order to ensure the best teachers are educating New Jersey’s children.”

Here is how Christie and Cerf describe the seven-bill package:

• Implementation of a multiple measured statewide evaluation system by the 2012-2013 school year that requires observation and evaluation of all educators at least twice per year with summative evaluation at the end of the school year using the rating categories of highly effective, effective, partially effective, or ineffective.
• Tenure attainment with recommendations for tenure eligibility only after four years of service and after ratings of “effective” or “highly effective” have been received for the proceeding three years with guidelines for lesser ratings. Tenure status is lost after an evaluation as ineffective for one year or partially effective for two years.
• Reforming laws governing reductions in force (“Last In, First Out”) so that any layoffs are based on effectiveness – not seniority – and determined by an evaluation system established by the education commissioner.
• Mutual consent that calls for agreement by both the principal and teacher on all teacher assignments to schools. Where a principal does not consent to a tenured teacher's placement in his or her school, that teacher will continue to receive compensation for 12 months while searching for an assignment in the district, after which he or she will be placed on unpaid leave.
• Reforming teacher compensation to focus on an educator’s demonstrated effectiveness in advancing student learning, as well as whether the educator is teaching in a failing school or is teaching in a subject area that has been identified as a difficult-to-staff subject area.
• Due process changes to eliminate a provision requiring a teacher against whom tenure charges were filed to begin receiving full salary and benefits after 120 days of start of the process as well as implementing a firm deadline requiring Administrative Law Judges hearing tenure revocation cases to render a decision within 30 days.
• Allow for school districts to opt out of the Civil Service System.

– TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM