What should be done about bad teachers?

Oregon law isn’t written in a way that’s best for students. It’s written to protect teachers — bad and good — from losing their jobs.

School districts get fairly reasonable legal room to get rid of teachers in their first three years. But there’s a reason districts work very hard to scrutinize teachers then. When probation’s over and teachers become contract teachers, it’s difficult to get an inept or uncaring teacher out of the classroom.

Teachers in Oregon work on two-year contracts. In theory, even contract teachers can be quickly dismissed under Oregon law.

That’s theory.

The fact is, dismissal is expensive. It’s time consuming. The outcome is uncertain. And it’s not even the school district that gets the final say. That belongs to a state board, the Fair Dismissal Appeals Board.

Another alternative for school districts is to tell a contract teacher his contract will not be renewed. The teacher is put on a “plan of assistance” to identify problem areas and hope for and encourage improvement. At any given time, for instance, Bend-La Pine Schools has about six teachers on a plan. Up to about that many teachers a year agree to resign instead of going on a plan. The district has 820 on its teaching staff.

Let’s assume then, you are a principal. You have an inept contract teacher. The teacher has been put on a plan. The plan doesn’t make a difference. The teacher’s incompetence is documented again and again. The teacher, though, doesn’t want to resign. The teacher is going to fight it. The district could just dismiss the teacher. That’s the most legally risky. So more than likely, the teacher will be kept on in the classroom in a wait for the contract to end and a hope that the teacher’s appeals will fail.

The district could temporarily move the teacher into another licensed position. That only moves the problem. A district could put the teacher on administrative leave with pay. That’s paying somebody bad to go on an extended vacation.

The Legislature pushed districts into this corner by designing a law to protect teachers. Education, though, should be about doing what’s best for students.