Two education bills originating in the Michigan Senate are making their way to the House, and are slated to be taken up by committee on Wednesday, October 25.
Senate Bill 395 and 396 eliminate student performance as metric used to evaluate teachers and redefines "unprofessional conduct" to protect teacher's jobs instead of putting student safety first. These bills go even further to remove accountability measures that are so important for good governance, limit the ability of parents and school boards to detect and correct corruption, and prioritize student learning and wellbeing last.
Under these bills:
- Teachers Unions can totally eliminate student growth and academic performance (measures of how well students are learning) from educator evaluations while negotiating teacher contracts.
- The bi-partisan tenure reform of 2014 that created enhanced accountability for teachers is weakened, so that bad teachers are nearly impossible to fire.
- Removes the stare requirement for unscheduled observation in the classroom
- Redefines "unprofessional conduct" so that misconduct will be less likely to appear on background checks. This puts children at greater risk because schools are not able to be as throughout in past employment record evaluation.
Tell the House Education committee what you think about these bills here.
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