House Committee Passes Teacher Tenure Reform

The House of Representatives Committee on Education reported a package of legislation Wednesday, providing for significant reform to the teacher tenure system. House Bills 4625, 4626, 4627 and 4628 now move to the full House for consideration.

The panel held four hearings on the package over an eight-day period, including considerable amounts of testimony – often heated – in opposition to the measures. The majority of the votes for passage of the measure were not straight party-line votes, with Representative Thomas Hooker (R-Byron Center) joining some Democrats in abstaining, while other Democrats voted “no.”

· House Bill 4625, sponsored by Representative Bill Rogers (R-Brighton), sets standards for achieving and retaining teacher tenure and revises associated procedures, increasing the necessary time to five years (from four) and requiring a teacher be rated as effective for a majority of that time.

· House Bill 4626, sponsored by the Committee’s Chairman, Representative Paul Scott (R-Grand Blanc), reinstates the “arbitrary and capricious” standard for teacher tenure hearings.

· House Bill 4627, sponsored by Representative Margaret O’Brien (R-Portage), eliminates the “last in, first out” or LIFO standard as a factor when teacher reductions are required – requiring “effectiveness” as the prevailing standard.

· House Bill 4628, sponsored by Representative Ken Yonker (R-Caledonia), makes parallel changes necessary in the Public Employment Relations Act (PERA).

Democrats attempted and failed at passing several amendments, from a substitute to remove essentially all substantive portions of each bill, to an amendment to apply the reform to charter schools.

posted by PAA Online , Friday, May 20, 2011 10:04 AM
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