Argument in Favor of Proposition 74

PROPOSITION 74 IS ONE OF THE BIPARTISAN
REFORMS WE NEED TO GET CALIFORNIA BACK ON
TRACK!

Prop. 74 is Real Education Reform

California schools used to be among the best in the nation.

Unfortunately, we’ve gotten off track despite the fact that public school spending increased by $3 billion this year and represents almost 50% of our overall state budget.

Instead of just throwing more of our hard-earned tax dollars at the problem, we need to get more money into the classroom and reward high-quality teachers instead of wasting money on problem teachers.

Unfortunately, California is one of a handful of states with an outdated “tenure” law that makes it almost impossible and extremely expensive to replace poor-performing teachers.

According to the California Journal (05-01-99), one school district spent more than $100,000 in legal fees and ultimately paid a teacher $25,000 to resign. Another district spent eight years and more than $300,000 to dismiss an unfit teacher.

Fighting the rules, regulations, and bureaucracy that protects unfit teachers squanders money that should be going to the classroom!

Today, even problem teachers are virtually guaranteed “employment for life.”

Prop. 74 Is About Making Sure Our Students Have the Best Possible Teachers:

• Requires teachers to perform well for five years instead of just two before they become eligible for permanent "guaranteed” employment.
• With a five-year waiting period, teachers have more opportunity to demonstrate expertise and that they deserve tenure. Principals have more time to evaluate teachers.
• Makes it easier to remove a tenured teacher after two consecutive unsatisfactory evaluations.
• Improves the quality of our teachers by rewarding the best teachers and weeding out problem teachers.

Unfortunately, Opponents of Prop. 74 Don’t Want Reform:

• Union bosses have blocked many education reforms and just want voters to throw more tax money at education with no reform!
• They will stop at nothing to defeat Prop. 74 and have spent millions for television ads to confuse voters on the reforms we need to get California back on track.

Don’t Be Misled by Their Deceitful Tactics. Classroom Teachers Say “YES” on Prop. 74:

“I’ve been an elementary teacher for 17 years. Good teachers don’t need a guaranteed job for life. I want to be re-hired and promoted based on the job I do, not just how long I’ve been on the job. Yes on Prop. 74 will improve the quality of teachers and the quality of our schools.”

Susan Barkdoll, San Bernardino
City Unified School District

“Most teachers are hardworking, care about their students, and go the extra mile. Regrettably, some teachers don’t. I’ve known teachers who are an embarrassment to the profession. Our children deserve better. They deserve teachers who will motivate and challenge them to achieve at their highest potential, and principals need the ability to remove non-performing teachers from the classroom.”

Jacqueline Watson, Placentia-Yorba Linda
Unified School District

“YES” on Prop. 74—Make Sure Our Students Have the Best Possible Teachers!

GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

GEORGE SCHULZ, Chair
Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors

KARLA JONES
2004 Educator of the Year, Orange County

Rebuttal to Argument in Favor of Proposition 74

PROP. 74 IS DESIGNED TO PUNISH HARDWORKING TEACHERS—THAT’S NOT REAL EDUCATION REFORM

PROP. 74 DOES NOTHING TO DEAL WITH THE REAL PROBLEMS IN OUR SCHOOLS: It won’t reduce class sizes, buy a textbook for every child, or make our schools clean and safe. Instead, it will discourage recruitment of the quality teachers we so desperately need. California already has a hard time finding and keeping our hardworking teachers.

SUPPORTERS OF 74 MISSTATE THE LAW: Today, teachers don’t have a guaranteed job for life. Under current law teachers can be, and are fired. Prop. 74 will force school districts to divert tens of millions of dollars out of the classroom for administrative expenses.

READ PROP. 74. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN IT WILL “REWARD HIGH QUALITY TEACHERS.” There was a program that evaluated teachers and rewarded high quality teachers with a $10,000 bonus, but Governor Schwarzenegger cut the funding for it this year.

HOW DID THEY ARRIVE AT 5 YEARS PROBATION INSTEAD OF THE CURRENT TWO? There are no facts to prove that five years means better student performance or more qualified teachers.

Prop. 74 contains no mentoring or evaluation systems or any other support services to assist newer teachers to do their difficult jobs better.

Scapegoating teachers may be politically expedient,
but it doesn’t constitute the real reform agenda our
schools need.

Prop. 74 is “a classic case of a solution in search of a problem.” San Francisco Chronicle, July 11, 2005.

VOTE NO ON PROP. 74.

MARY BERGAN, President
California Federation of Teachers

MONICA MASINO, President
Student CTA

MANUEL “MANNY” HERNANDEZ, Vice President
Sacramento City Unified School District

Argument Against Proposition 74

PROPOSITION 74 IS DECEPTIVE, UNNECESSARY, AND UNFAIR. It won’t improve student achievement and it won’t help reform public education in any meaningful way. Furthermore, it will cost school districts tens of millions of dollars to implement.

Proposition 74 doesn’t reduce class size or provide new textbooks, computers, or other urgently needed learning materials. It doesn’t improve teacher training or campus safety. Nor does it increase educational funding or fix one leaking school roof.

PROPOSITION 74 IS DECEPTIVE BECAUSE IT MISLEADS PEOPLE ABOUT HOW TEACHER EMPLOYMENT REALLY WORKS. California teachers are not guaranteed a job for life, which means they don’t have tenure. All teachers receive after a two-year probationary period is the right to a hearing before they are dismissed.

VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 74.

Existing state law already gives school districts the authority to dismiss teachers for unsatisfactory performance, unprofessional conduct, criminal acts, dishonesty, or other activities not appropriate to teaching—no matter how long a teacher has been on the job.

PROPOSITION 74 IS UNFAIR TO TEACHERS BECAUSE IT TAKES AWAY THEIR RIGHT TO A HEARING BEFORE THEY ARE FIRED. We give criminals the right to due process, and our teachers deserve those fundamental rights, as well.

Over the next 10 years, we will need 100,000 new teachers. Proposition 74 hurts our ability to recruit and retain quality teachers while doing absolutely nothing to improve either teacher performance or student achievement. Proposition 74 hurts young teachers most. It will discourage young people from entering the teaching profession at this critical time.

THIS UNNECESSARY ANTI-TEACHER INITIATIVE WAS PUT ON THE BALLOT FOR ONLY ONE REASON—to punish teachers for speaking out against the governor’s poor record on education and criticizing him for breaking his promise to fully fund our schools.

The governor says that Proposition 74 is needed. But university researchers say that they know of no evidence to support the claim that lengthening the teacher probation period improves teacher performance or student achievement. Good teaching comes from mentoring, training, and support—not from the kind of negative, punitive approach imposed by Proposition 74.

VOTE NO ON 74. Proposition 74 is designed to divert attention away from the governor’s failure on education. California schools lost $3.1 billion when he broke his much-publicized promise to repay the money he took from the state’s education budget last year. Now he has a plan that budget experts and educators warn will cut educational funding by another $4 billion.

Rather than punishing teachers, we should give them our thanks for making a huge difference in the lives of our children—and for speaking up for what California schools and the students need to be successful.

PLEASE JOIN US IN VOTING “NO” ON PROPOSITION 74.

BARBARA KERR, President
California Teachers Association

JACK O’CONNELL, State Superintendent of Public
Instruction

NAM NGUYEN, Student Teacher

Rebuttal to Argument Against Proposition 74

Don’t be misled by opponents of 74. They don’t want
real education reform. Their solution is to keep throwing
billions of new tax dollars every year at a system that is rife with waste and bureaucratic regulations.

We need to put more money into our classrooms,
instead of wasting it on poor performing teachers,
outrageous legal costs, and bureaucratic rules and
regulations.

Today, it’s almost impossible to replace poor performing
teachers who have what amounts to “guaranteed employment for life”—an antiquated system that wastes taxpayer money and ultimately hurts our children:

The Riverside Press Enterprise reported several years ago on a case where a teacher called her students derogatory names, swore at them, showed R-rated movies, and once even sent a 4th grade student to her car to retrieve a butcher knife. Was she fired? No! She was paid $25,000 to quit.

Rather than pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to lawyers and conduct lengthy and useless dismissal proceedings, school districts are forced to actually pay teachers to resign because of outdated tenure laws.

Prop. 74 protects and rewards good teachers, but makes it possible to replace poor-performing teachers in a responsible and objective manner:

• Requires teachers perform well on the job for five years instead of two before becoming eligible for tenure.
• Makes it possible and less expensive to remove a poor-performing teacher after two unsatisfactory evaluations.

Vote “YES on 74”—Responsible reforms to improve our public schools.

www.JoinArnold.com

DR. PETER G. MEHAS, Superintendent
Fresno County Office of Education

HUGH MOONEY, Teacher
Galt Union High School District

LILLIAN PERRY, Teacher
Fontana Unified School District

Arguments printed on this page are the opinions of the authors and have not been checked for accuracy by any official agency.