Gary Palmer and Cameron Smith: Time for tenure reform

  The next battle between public employee unions and a reform-minded legislature is taking place in Montgomery, Alabama. And even though Alabama is a right-to-work state, where employees' right not to join or support a union is protected, most of Alabama's education employees are members of powerful trade associations that are effectively public employee unions. The battle taking place concerns tenure reform and the ability to efficiently remove incompetent teachers. 

  The Students First Act coming up for consideration in the Alabama House of Representatives does not eliminate tenure. In fact, it would preserve tenure for probationary teachers who teach for three consecutive school years within the same school systems. Once teachers attain tenure, they can only be terminated for specific reasons. The greatest change comes in the form of a streamlined appeals process that would, among other provisions, allow school boards to stop making salary and benefit payments 75 days after the employee is terminated or when the appeal concludes, whichever is earlier. The legislation also explicitly states that teachers cannot be terminated for political or personal reasons.