United Teachers Los Angeles supports merit pay “on a cold day in hell”

The Detroit Federation of Teachers shut down city schools to stop 15 charter schools from being built for free

The California Teachers Association has compared school vouchers to child prostitution

The Washington Teachers Union has withheld kids’ college recommendations for parents who didn’t oppose school reform

In Illinois (outside of Chicago), two union-protected teachers out of 95,500 are terminated for incompetence annually

In Illinois (outside of Chicago), it costs $219,504.21 to fire a bad union-protected teacher

In New Jersey, five union-protected teachers out of more than 100,000 are terminated for incompetence annually

In New York State, seventeen union-protected teachers are terminated a year

In New York State, it costs $128,941 to fire a bad union-protected teacher

In New York City, only ten out of 55,000 tenured teachers were terminated in 2006-2007

In Los Angeles, only eleven out of 43,000 union-protected teachers are even considered for termination annually

The National Education Association received $50 million for shaky investment advice in 2004 alone

NEA members are suing over the union’s endorsement of “Valuebuilder,” a plan with over $1 billion of members’ money invested

New York State United Teachers received $3 million for shaky investment advice in 2005

Washington Teachers Union embezzlement tab: $5 million

United Teachers of Dade (Miami) embezzlement tab: $2.5 million

Massachusetts Teachers Association embezzlement tab: $800,000

Michigan teachers unions' embezzlement tab from one thief: $218,000 in bad checks

Protecting Bad Teachers

Having a good teacher at the front of every classroom should be the number-one priority in public education. But the outdated employment practice called “teacher tenure” lets union leaders keep incompetent, troubled, and burnt-out teachers in the system, while keeping out people who are actually committed to educating children.

I don’t represent the children.
I represent the teachers.

— Al Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers

Bad Teachers Are Rarely Fired

Tenure Keeps Annual Teacher Firing Rates Too Low

Chicago: Principals say that 83 percent of bad tenured teachers “rarely or never” get fired
Columbus: Teachers union admits tenured teacher firings can cost up to $50,000
Dallas: 0.78 percent of tenured teachers are terminated annually
Idaho: It can cost “$100,000 or $200,000” to get rid of a bad tenured teacher
Illinois (not including Chicago): Two out of 95,500 terminated -- it costs $219,504 to fire a bad teacher
Los Angeles: Eleven out of 43,000 considered for termination
Newark: About one out of 3,000
New Jersey: Five out of more than 100,000 terminated
New York City: Ten out of 55,000
New York State: Seventeen tenured teachers annually -- it costs $128,941 to fire a bad teacher
Tucson: About one out of 2,300

In most states, teachers are awarded tenure after only a few years, after which they become almost impossible to fire. Union leaders insist that they support archaic tenure laws because they ensure “due process” for teachers. But these laws actually help bad teachers keep their jobs.

In 2003, one Los Angeles union representative said: “If I’m representing them, it’s impossible to get them out. It’s impossible. Unless they commit a lewd act.” Between 1995 and 2005, only 112 Los Angeles tenured teachers faced termination -- eleven per year -- out of 43,000. And that’s in a school district whose 2003 graduation rate was just 51 percent.

One New Jersey union representative was even more blunt about the work his organization does to keep bad teachers in the classroom, saying: “I’ve gone in and defended teachers who shouldn’t even be pumping gas.”

In ten years, only about 47 out of 100,000 teachers were actually terminated from New Jersey’s schools. Original research conducted by the Center for Union Facts (CUF) confirms that almost no one ever gets fired from New Jersey’s largest school district, no matter how bad. Over four recent years, CUF discovered, Newark’s school district successfully fired about one out of every 3,000 tenured teachers annually. Graduation statistics indicate that the district needs much stronger medicine: Between the 2001-2002 and the 2004-2005 school years, Newark’s graduation rate (not counting the diplomas “earned” through New Jersey’s laughable remedial exam) was a mere 30.6 percent.

A lot of people who have been hired as teachers are basically not competent.

— Al Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers

We published an op-ed in the Asbury Park Press detailing how the Newark Teachers Union has fought to protect bad teachers. Read it here.

Reporter Scott Reeder of the Small Newspaper Group discovered in 2005 that “[o]ut of 95,500 tenured teachers in Illinois [outside of Chicago] an average of only two are fired each year for poor performance.” In Chicago itself, hundreds of principals surveyed by The New Teacher Project in 2007 said that 83 percent of poor-performing tenured teachers are “rarely or never” terminated.

Click here to read our op-ed in The Birmingham News discussing how the Alabama Education Association fights to protect bad teachers from accountability.

The evidence that tenure laws keep bad teachers in schools is overwhelming. In New York State, outside of New York City, only about 17 tenured teachers are terminated annually. New York City’s Chancellor has revealed that in that city, only ten out of 55,000 tenured teachers were terminated in the 2006-2007 school year. In a year in Florida, scholar Richard Kahlenberg wrote, the involuntary dismissal rate for teachers was an abysmally low 0.05 percent, “compared with 7.9 percent in the Florida workforce as a whole.” In Dallas, even when unofficial pressures to resign are factored in, only 0.78 percent of tenured teachers are terminated. Out of Tucson’s 2,300 tenured teachers, only seven have been fired for classroom behavior in the past five years. Des Moines, a school district with almost 3,000 teachers, has fired just two for poor performance in five years.

If I’m representing them, it’s impossible to get them out. It’s impossible. Unless they commit a lewd act.

— Los Angeles teachers union representative, as told to Public Agenda

Teachers Agree: Bad Apples Stay

A study conducted by Public Agenda in 2003 polled 1,345 schoolteachers on a variety of education issues, including the role that tenure played in their schools. When asked “does tenure mean that a teacher has worked hard and proved themselves to be very good at what they do?” 58 percent of the teachers polled answered that no, tenure “does not necessarily” mean that. In a related question, 78 percent said a few (or more) teachers in their schools “fail to do a good job and are simply going through the motions.”

The Union Tax on Firing Bad Teachers

So why don’t districts try to terminate more of their poor performers? The sad answer is that teachers unions have made the process prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. In Illinois, Reeder found, it costs an average of $219,504 in legal fees alone to get a termination case past all the union-supported hurdles. Columbus, Ohio’s own teachers union president admitted to the Associated Press that firing a tenured teacher can cost as much as $50,000. In New York State, the average is $128,941 (Education Week reports that in New York City, the average is $163,142). A spokesman for Idaho school administrators told local press that districts have been known to spend “$100,000 or $200,000” in litigation costs just to get rid of a bad teacher.

I’ve gone in and defended teachers who shouldn’t even be pumping gas.

— New Jersey teachers union representative, as told to Public Agenda

The Bottom Line

Most teachers absolutely deserve to keep their jobs, but it’s absurd to pretend that the numbers of firings actually reflect the numbers of bad teachers protected by tenure. As long as union leaders possess the legal ability to drag out termination proceedings for months or even years -- during which time districts must continue paying lawyers -- the situation for students will not improve.

Even Al Shanker, the legendary former president of the American Federation of Teachers, admitted, “a lot of people who have been hired as teachers are basically not competent.”

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