No matter how
much money in California on education we spend
Too many
students drop out or graduate with no skills into joblessness or jobs of dead
end
Students
Matter approached the problem a different to change the failing trend
Maybe it’s
the poor quality of the teacher not how much more money to spend
Students
Matter filed a case in a L.A. Superior Court
To overturn
the tenure and dismissal laws that cause education to come up short
Students matter;
that’s whom public education is supposed to serve
Not the
poorly performing teachers job security to preserve
When schools
face layoffs when budget problems mount
In
California seniority is the only measure that seemed to count
The youngest
teachers those most likely with the idealism burning still bright
Were the
first to go condemning the students to educational blight
Worse Judge
Treu heard testimony on hard it is for a poorly performing teacher to be fired
The unions
fight a dismissal tooth and nail, years of litigation and massive fees required
The state is
held hostage to the two bookends of the ultimate mother’s milk source
Prison guards
and teachers union’s mandatory dues into political contributions are an irresistible
force
Whatever the
teachers union wanted in the Education Code, it had only to request
While the
flow of mediocrity so tenured was impossible to arrest
If a teacher
can somehow survive a teacher’s first two years of hire
That teacher
unless convicted of a crime is set until that teacher decides to retire
Who are the
victims one should ask
Of teachers
failing to perform their educational task?
The students
many of whom of color who were deprived of a chance to explore and to learn
Unless in an
expensive private school or in a charter their bridge to the future burned
The union
reacted swiftly, condemned the decision as deeply flawed
Vowed to
appeal but this may be the union’s political grip on the legislature’s last
hurrah
Students do
matter; tenure to preserve incompetence does not
An opening,
a mandate to improve the education sought
Look for
this case to the Supreme Court finally weave
Vergara
like Brown may be as landmark as
a case to poor schooling relieve
While it slowly
wends its well-funded, well-briefed way
Special note
of the concept should be taken at the VA
So they
might start firing for the Vets scheduling delays
© June
11, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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