The fight over public education has reached a critical point since the beginning of the last decade and continues at an accelerated rate. The country has seen major conflicts in education pour out into the media and even the courts. These conflicts include a struggle for resources, mass layoffs of teachers, and major pushback by politicians regarding state tenure laws and unions. Another conflict is the massive expansion of charter schools, to include the expansion of school vouchers. Parents, educators, and other advocates of public school children have also began a concentrated effort on repealing Common Core and other standardized testing. Public education is a battle of survival and this struggle affects all of the parties involved.
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Some states allow teachers to obtain tenure or other similar job protections after only two years on the job, while others force teachers to work up to five years first. Similarly, while some states hold that teachers without tenure should be the first to go in cases of layoffs, others prohibit tenure from being a factor. Massive teacher layoffs across the country have been a major catalyst in bringing teacher tenure laws to the national spotlight. Litigation over this issue is currently underway in California, New York, and North Carolina. The first two cases are basically in favor of revamping teacher tenure laws in those states, stating that current tenure policy violates the civil rights of students. The third case in North Carolina looks to protect teacher tenure laws in that state. According to Rodney Ellis, the president of the North Carolina Association of teachers, “Career status is a critical tool to recruit and retain quality educators, just like fair compensation and working and learning conditions. We need to ensure all teachers can focus on educating our kids and helping them be successful and not worried about arbitrary disciplinary actions by administrators outside of the classroom" (Huffington Post, 2015). Tenure litigation is quickly becoming a national issue and will probably be settled by the United States Supreme Court. This touches on the struggle for state …show more content…
According to Bolick (2003), “it is a freedom movement to secure greater parental autonomy and educational opportunities for the millions of American families that lack to most basic power over the education of their children.” However, the issue has been brought to the front of the educational debate with legislation that has come out of the state of Nevada. With the passage of SB302, any parent with a child enrolled in a Nevada public school, including charter schools, for 100 consecutive school days would be given the option to leave and take the state's education funding with them. Parents can use this funding to either send their child to a private institution, or homeschool them. Michael Pertrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham institute claims “that this a voucher on steroids… This is something many school choice advocates have been pushing for many years, this notion of universal school choice, and no state has come close to going as far as Nevada has.” (Christian Science Monitor, 2015) Pertrilli may not be wrong in his assessment. What Nevada has done has been considered groundbreaking and monumental, possibly flipping public education on its head. Many states are presently considering similar legislation, and this move by Nevada may be what they need to gain momentum for its passage. Time will tell if this legislation proves effective, that is assuming,
Some states allow teachers to obtain tenure or other similar job protections after only two years on the job, while others force teachers to work up to five years first. Similarly, while some states hold that teachers without tenure should be the first to go in cases of layoffs, others prohibit tenure from being a factor. Massive teacher layoffs across the country have been a major catalyst in bringing teacher tenure laws to the national spotlight. Litigation over this issue is currently underway in California, New York, and North Carolina. The first two cases are basically in favor of revamping teacher tenure laws in those states, stating that current tenure policy violates the civil rights of students. The third case in North Carolina looks to protect teacher tenure laws in that state. According to Rodney Ellis, the president of the North Carolina Association of teachers, “Career status is a critical tool to recruit and retain quality educators, just like fair compensation and working and learning conditions. We need to ensure all teachers can focus on educating our kids and helping them be successful and not worried about arbitrary disciplinary actions by administrators outside of the classroom" (Huffington Post, 2015). Tenure litigation is quickly becoming a national issue and will probably be settled by the United States Supreme Court. This touches on the struggle for state …show more content…
According to Bolick (2003), “it is a freedom movement to secure greater parental autonomy and educational opportunities for the millions of American families that lack to most basic power over the education of their children.” However, the issue has been brought to the front of the educational debate with legislation that has come out of the state of Nevada. With the passage of SB302, any parent with a child enrolled in a Nevada public school, including charter schools, for 100 consecutive school days would be given the option to leave and take the state's education funding with them. Parents can use this funding to either send their child to a private institution, or homeschool them. Michael Pertrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham institute claims “that this a voucher on steroids… This is something many school choice advocates have been pushing for many years, this notion of universal school choice, and no state has come close to going as far as Nevada has.” (Christian Science Monitor, 2015) Pertrilli may not be wrong in his assessment. What Nevada has done has been considered groundbreaking and monumental, possibly flipping public education on its head. Many states are presently considering similar legislation, and this move by Nevada may be what they need to gain momentum for its passage. Time will tell if this legislation proves effective, that is assuming,