March 29, 2011. Legislation would make boards of trustees fire lowest-performing faculty when making workforce reductions
(Received March 28)
House to vote on bill ending PSC for current first and second year teachers
One of the questions we have been asked about SB 736 is whether or not current first and second year teachers will be eligible for Professional Service Contracts (PSC) (See Frequently Asked Questions #28). It was not clear from the language in the SB 736 but we thought a teacher “in the pipeline” would still be eligible. During discussions about this bill, we were lead to believe any current first through third year teacher, who completed their 3 years of annual contracts favorably, would still be eligible for PSC.
CS/HB 7087/7091* aims to end that speculation by eliminating the language which would allow first and second year teachers to be eligible for PSC. These bills have sped through the legislature and are scheduled to be heard on the Floor of the House on Tuesday, March 29 with final vote by the House likely on Wednesday, March 30.
These bills repealed some obsolete language for programs which were no longer funded or under-utilized. As legislators went through the amendment process with these bills it became clear they were trying to ensure that PSC would not be available for current first or second year annual contract teachers. This group of teachers, if these bills pass both House and Senate, will only be eligible for annual contracts. When these teachers were first hired, they were told that after 3 years of successful service they would be eligible for PSC. Now the legislature plans to break that promise, too.
House rolls out anti-tenure bill for college faculty
The House K-20 Competitiveness Subcommittee released a proposed committee bill (PSB) on Friday which would eliminate multi-year contracts for all of our community or state college faculty (except the school president). The bill will be heard Tuesday in the House K-20 Competitiveness Subcommittee.
KCOS 11-03 – as it is currently numbered – would require the boards of trustees of each college to adopt a performance evaluation system and fire the lowest-performing employees when making reductions, rather than basing those decisions on seniority. The text of the bill had not been posted on-line at the time this report was compiled.
*Note- these two bills were combined in committee as one bill – hence the odd numbering.
Questions? Call FEA Public Policy Advocacy at 850.224.2078