Post-CA Tenure Decision, Kyrillos Seeks Repeat in New Jersey

Joe Kyrillos at 2012 RNC in Tampa, Florida

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

Joe Kyrillos at 2012 RNC in Tampa, Florida
Joe Kyrillos at 2012 RNC in Tampa, Florida

Following an earth-shattering decision by the California state court striking down that state’s tenure law, state Senator Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) says he’s reaching out to an advocacy group involved in the West Coast case to help accomplish the same result in New Jersey.

He’ll start by re-introducing S-2171, “The School Children First Act.”

“This legislature should seize this opportunity and momentum to pass full tenure reform to improve education and lower property taxes in New Jersey,” Sen. Kyrillos said in a statement released by the Senate GOP office. “This overhaul bill allows public school districts to best serve their students and communities by ensuring only the best teachers, administrators and staff members are the ones educating and nurturing our next generation.”

Past efforts have been examples of tokenism at best and a waste of time for the more cynical among you.

Kyrillos says his legislation would accomplish the following: 

· Eliminate last-in, first-out (LIFO) seniority protections that force schools to ignore educator effectiveness and layoff high-performing younger teachers, instead of more expensive, ineffective ones;

· Require school districts to adopt merit-based compensation schedules, whereby public school employees are paid and retained based on their performances, contributions and growth;

· Allow school principals to assign teachers to classrooms where they will be effective; and

· Alleviate tenure-law obstacles for school districts seeking to become more efficient by consolidating or merging services.

It’s a tough issue, Save Jerseyans.

Why? Because it’s easy enough to say “let’s reward good teachers and reform/penalize the bad ones,” but how do you effectively evaluate teacher performance when the good teachers find their classrooms filled with the most challenging students on an annual basis?

There’s also an emerging consensus among everyone NOT in government that testing is close to useless.

School choice is the only solution. The free market is the only fair way to judge any professional’s abilities. Anything else is probably a net negative for hardworking teachers and a net neutral for the kids we’re trying to help. Just one former student’s opinion…

And let’s abandon Common Core while we’re at it?

 

Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8390 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

15 Comments

  1. yeah, we need too big to fail,
    What is Kyrillos doing to get our credit rating up so we dont pay high interest rates that raise taxes

  2. Sounds like more money being flushed down the liberal toilet. Schools need discipline, higher academic standards and students who actually want to learn. You could put the best teacher in the world in the classroom, but if the kids have no interest in learning it is pointless. And also, kids are being coddled and pussified today which certainly doesn’t help. Thanks for trying to save NJ, Matt.

  3. Another asshole politician that thinks they walk on water and know it all. Do your homework dip-shit!

  4. Here is another scrub politician who knows nothing about education but seeks to put the funds for it into his corporate buddies hands. By the way, please produce the research that shows how destroying teacher tenure improves outcomes… I believe the southern states can prove that wrong. How does “merit” pay improve outcomes? There is a ton of research out there showing how it doesn’t work and had been abandoned by cities and states… but even Newark doesn’t have the money for “merit” pay, therefore it won’t ever happen. Further, new teachers are NEVER high performers, it takes a good 3-5 years to learn the trade and hit a successful stride. However, if you want those low performers to teach your kids just so taxes can be cut for lower taxes, have at it. My kids have thankfully graduated. I will home school my grandchildren to keep them away from this hogwash and snake oil. OH yes, and put your own kids into into those public schools with all those “young” and cheap teachers instead of spiriting them away to private schools that don’t do this and don’t use common core. Do as I say, not as I do, WE get it.

  5. If anybody reading this seriously thinks eliminating teacher tenure and seniority will lower property taxes, I’ve got a bridge to sell you (in Bergen Co.).

  6. I am a special education/pupil services professional. I speak up when I see something thats not right (ie. District administration putting money over student’s needs) It’s stressful enough getting the unspoken backlash of that. If I can get fired for it I won’t do it anymore. I am also a parent with my own kids in school and I want them to also have teachers who are happy, not afraid.

  7. I am a special education/pupil services professional. I speak up when I see something thats not right (ie. District administration putting money over student’s needs) It’s stressful enough getting the unspoken backlash of that. If I can get fired for it I won’t do it anymore. I am also a parent with my own kids in school and I want them to also have teachers who are happy, not afraid.

  8. That is why tenure should NOT be scrubbed – unless you’re referring to the “tenure” of some in Congress. If teachers had no protection from the tenures or unions, it would be a feeding frenzy on the public dollars in the school district budget by the Norcross and Gilmore cronies…Norcross and his “charter pals”, and Gilmore and his “solar circus”.

  9. Merit pay is not the answer. Teachers should earn as much as the private sector. If you had a starting salary for teachers of $65-$75,000 a year, you would attract really good teachers. If the teacher could max out at a salary equivalent to what a superintendent makes you would have the best education system in the world. Peer review is the way private sector companies evaluate their personnel, and could replace tenure. So it is in the interest of the taxpayers of this state to tell the senator that he’s on the right track but it needs to be adjusted.

  10. Additionally, if you pay teachers the equivalent of the private sector, then you could end the pension issues by providing them with a 401 VOLUNTARY savings account. They would fund, in large part, their own retirement savings account.

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