Teacher’s Bill of Rights

Amidst the wide variety of bills dealing with education currently floating through the General Assembly is one in particular that stands out as a cut above the rest. Its goal is simple: to give teachers basic protections they have been wanting for a very long time. Many of the issues it attempts to correct were issues I personally experienced in my year in the classroom, and this would certainly have been a very welcome law then.

The bill in question is State Senator Judson Hill’s SB 307, the “Teacher’s Bill of Rights”. Yes, it is clearly an election year ploy designed to curry favor for Republicans among a very large voter bloc in Georgia – teachers – but it is something that has been genuinely needed for quite a while, and I would rather it be passed as an election year ploy than not at all.

So what are teachers’ rights, per this bill?

Note that the following bolded list of rights is my own summary of each point of the bill, and the not necessarily from within the text of the bill. The explanations I give detail what the text of the bill says.

1) Right to think independently and express criticism Specifically, the bill states “School board members and administrators shall respect the right of a teacher to exercise independent thought and to express constructive criticism in an appropriate and professional manner”. my questions here are whether local school administration will be held to this, as the prhase “School board members and administrators” could be held to mean central office administration exclusively, and not also local school administration – which would be a severe flaw in this right. Furthermore, who gets to define “constructive criticism” and “appropriate and professional manner”? I know and agree that there are some basic guidelines we as a culture tend to accept, but there is also a wide range of thought on what these terms mean within those cultural guidelines. Also note that in a multi-cultural society, cultural guidelines are simply not enough, as by definition there are muliple cultures, and thus multiple definitions, at play. At a minimum, this section needs to address who decides what these phrases mean. That said, this is not an issue that kills the bill for me – only takes it down from a 10 to a 9.

2) Right to a safe classroom This one says in a nutshell that if a teacher determines that a student is causing a significant disruption to the class, the administrator must remove the student and at a minimum, the student cannot return to that class that day. It also explicitly states “The administrator shall not undermine the teacher’s authority in the classroom by questioning the teacher’s account of what happened in front of one or more students”.

3) Right to file grievance about an evaluation This one is self explanatory in the text of the bill: “A teacher has a right to file a grievance about an evaluation if, in the opinion of the teacher, the evaluation was unfair, false, or retaliatory for the exercise of a right granted by this Code section”.

4) Right to evaluate each administrator at his/her school anonymously This one basically says that each teacher has to have the opportunity to evaluate each administrator at his or her school each year in a way that is absolutely confidential and anonymous. These evaluations are to be sent to the Superintendent who is then to send copies to each member of the local school board. This is one of the most crucial pieces of this bill to me, as it allows teachers to let the school board know what the school administration is like from their point of view without any way for administration to retaliate against an individual or group. Too often administration is seen one way by parents, who can praise/complain at will, vs the complete opposite by teachers, who until this bill becomes law cannot express their opinions due to th very real threat of retaliation. (Yes, I had personal experience there.) The Superintendent and School Board may or may not act on these evaluations, but at least the teachers will have a chance to say their piece.

5) Right to have teacher of the year at each school elected by secret ballot of the teachers at that school I honestly have no clue what goes in to the teacher of the year selection process right now -though I think it is exclusively an administration decision-, but this seems fair. Of course, it also opens up the entire concept to being nothing more than a popularity contest, but I imagine it is already seen as such – just a ‘who is more popular with administration’ rather than ‘who is more popular with their colleagues’ type of situation.

6) Right to fair disciplinary hearings This one is also one that is desperately needed. It says that teacher can have a person of their choosing at any disciplinary proceeding or conference, that they have to be notified of such conference with “reasonable advance notice” except in extraordinary circumstances, and that the teacher is allowed to record the event.

7) Right to speedy hearings and decisions This is the longest and most complex right recognized within this bill. Basically, it says that if the local school board doesn’t hold hearings on complaints and render a decision in the required time frames, the issue is settled in favor of the complainant and the last thing the complainant asked to be done shall be done. The State Superintendent of Schools is to enforce this upon appeal by the complainant within 60 days of the time expiring or the local school board flat out saying they wouldn’t hold the hearing. The time frames can only be extended by written mutual consent or events which close the school system due to weather or some other emergency when the deadlines are extended for a maximum of the number of days the school system was shut down. To extend the deadline even when the system is shut down requires written notification within 5 days of the system reopening. The State Superintendent is authorized to do anything up to and including withholding state funds from the local school board until the local school board fuly and completely complies with the order. If the local school board starts to comply but then goes back on it, the State Superintendent retains the power he/she had if the local board had never even begun to comply.