Wilson Proposals for Teachers

Re “School Plan Sure to Face Tough Test,” Jan. 10:

Gov. Pete Wilson’s bold new proposal to abolish the tenure system and provide merit pay for outstanding teachers is precisely the treatment our state’s ailing educational system needs. The California Teachers Assn. (CTA) and its Democratic allies not surprisingly have always vehemently opposed these ideas in order to protect their turf even though tenure and their blind faith in believing that all teachers are equal (and thus a big “no” to merit pay) clearly defy common sense.

Before the CTA voices its nays to the abolition of tenure for teachers, it should first perform a thorough review on the degree of ineptitude among the currently tenured teachers by polling their students, parents and their fellow teachers. With even the top third of our high school graduates needing remedial tutoring in state universities, CTA must know that its current policy and practice are not serving the public well.

JOHN T. CHIU

Corona del Mar

* Wilson, like so many who are looking for a quick fix for California’s academic challenges, misconstrues the role of tenure in the educational community. While this institution may require that administrators and school boards adhere to standards of due process when seeking to discipline teachers, it in no way forecloses their ability to proceed against those they deem unworthy of retention.

Tenure protects the rights of students to an education beyond the narrow boundaries within which shortsighted individuals often seek to constrain them. It is the tenured teachers on the staffs of every school in California who stand up to administrators and school boards cowed by citizens whose political motivation does not always include significant adherence to the principles of constitutional democracy. Consistently, it is teachers who insist that books not be taken off of library shelves, that classroom discussions be open and wide-ranging, that the First Amendment be protected, and that local political interests and religious agendas not define the curriculum. Tenure plays a crucial role within the educational culture of our great democracy, assuring that those who most frequently act in the interest of and on behalf of our youngest citizens do so unencumbered by the threat of termination.

MARILYN E. LUBARSKY

Claremont

* Tenure was never intended to protect the jobs of bad teachers. It is intended to protect all teachers from administrative micro-management. Abolish tenure and the most incompetent bureaucrat in the system will be free to enter the classroom of the most competent teacher and mandate what materials will be used and how lessons will be taught. If the teacher does not comply, the bureaucrat will be empowered to fire that teacher (and hire his cousin). Apparently, Wilson is content to shackle good teachers in order to be rid of the bad ones, thereby guaranteeing mediocrity across the board.

JOEL LITTAUER

Los Angeles

* Wilson would drop the requirement that teachers be credentialed, saying it has prevented many retired experts from becoming teachers. I am both a “retired expert” and a “credentialed teacher,” in that order. In my opinion, Wilson is contradicting himself. On one hand, he wants to eliminate teachers who don’t perform well and on the other hand he wants to allow inexperienced, unproven and perhaps unqualified people to teach in our state. Just because someone is an expert in a particular subject doesn’t automatically assure he/she will be a good instructor of that subject.

WILLIAM ROSE

Los Angeles