Drawing a line between good and bad teachers

Your endorsement of Proposition 74 (editorial, Oct. 12), which would make it easier to fire presumably bad teachers, includes the statement, “Everyone on campus ... knows who the bad teachers are.” Having been around educators most of my life, I think you should change that to, “Everyone on campus thinks they know who the bad teachers are.” But they don’t, and their certainty is a delusion.

There is no reliable measure of what good teachers are supposed to do, and no reliable way to identify bad ones. Just what test do you plan to administer to measure your own criterion of “caring”? Proposition 74 is part of the governor’s cynical campaign to punish those who oppose him, and all it does is place another weapon (or the threat of one) in the hands of administrators.

JOSEPH A. DANE

South Pasadena

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These are not the times to make teacher tenure harder to get. Presently, a teacher can be let go within two years; that seems to be enough time to make an evaluation. A good administrator should be able to tell within two years whether a teacher is capable. There are already too many working teachers who do not have the proper credentials. Without a doubt the passage of Proposition 74 would increase the number of poorly and non-credentialed teachers.

BILL GIBSON

San Clemente

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Your support of the badly flawed Proposition 74 climaxes a steady turn to the right by a newspaper that once was respected for its rational editorial positions. Now, The Times has become a parody of its 1940s self.

RALPH SHAFFER

Pomona