Education Bills Squelch Any Reform Agenda

Instead of pushing in a reform direction, the CTA’s backers are trying to make it tougher to deal with inadequate teachers. SB 499 and AB 575, co-sponsored by Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, “would open teacher evaluations up to collective bargaining on not just the process, but the actual standards by which teachers are evaluated,” argued a coalition of education-reform groups opposing the bills. “Offering unions this power affords them the opportunity and incentive to water down teacher evaluations, including minimizing the percentage of their evaluations based on objective measures of student learning and academic growth.”