June 20, 2014\u00a0–\u00a0 \u201cOn Tuesday morning, teachers across California got up, went to their schools and dedicated their day to helping students learn and grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile teachers led their classrooms, a judge in a Los Angeles courtroom said that for students to win, teachers have to lose,\u201d wrote Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, in an email message to union members and supporters this week.<\/p>\n
Weingarten was referring to the June 10 ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu that teacher tenure and layoffs by seniority in the state are unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
Tenure is a touchy subject in many quarters, but in a letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Weingarten pointed out that the job-protection provisions that are common in teacher contracts merely guarantee teacher due process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe judge argues that no one should tolerate bad teachers in the classroom. We agree \u2013 and in many states we\u2019ve reformed the process to protect teachers and ease the burden on schools,\u201d the AFT president wrote. \u201cBut in focusing on teachers who make up a fraction of the workforce, he strips the hundreds of thousands of good teachers of any right to a voice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
APWU President Mark Dimondstein compared teacher tenure to our protection against layoffs. \u201cTenure means school boards must have a good reason to fire teachers, just as the USPS must have a good reason to fire postal employees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd privatizers have chipped away at public education, just as they have chipped away at the Postal Service,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey have de-funded schools, vilified teachers, and weakened education to such a degree that many people are ready to give up on public education, which is the foundation of our egalitarian society,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have done the same to the Postal Service,\u201d he pointed out. \u201cThey have created a phony financial crisis to justify closing mail processing plants, shutting post offices, and destroying service. Then the Postmaster General, the Wall Street privatizers and members of Congress say we need to privatize major portions of postal operations. \u201cAFT affiliates and the National Education Association have been extremely supportive of our struggle against privatization of retail operations at Staples,\u201d Dimondstein said. \u201cI urge postal employees to reciprocate \u2013 to show support for educators who are fighting to defend public education.<\/p>\n![\"1aa-APWU-small\"](\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/1aa-APWU-small.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n