An actual plan to get rid of poor teachers.

The NCTE inbox article: "Group has severance plan for 'worst unionized teachers'", proposes an unprecedented approach to ridding classrooms of it's most unwanted teachers.  The plan, proposed by "The Center for Union Facts", is to bribe ten selected teachers with $10,000 to retire from the classroom.  According to the article, "The Center for Union Facts" is asking students, parents, and teachers to nominate who they feel the worst teachers are.  As of last Tuesday, elections had begun.

The main proponent of this plan is Rick Berman, who states that his intent is not to humiliate teachers.  Berman states, "We're trying to jump-start a conversation that maybe people need severance packages to find themselves another line of work." By getting teachers to voluntarily quit, school's need not worry themselves with confronting teachers who are performing poorly.  The funny thing is, I have a hard time imagining any teacher who would gladly take the money as it is such an insulting prize, also, $10,000 is a pittance on which to build a new career.  

I personally think that school boards should not be so afraid of such confrontations.  If a teacher is clearly not meeting the expectations of parents or school boards, they should be retrained.  If they do not improve after retraining, they should then be released.  The article notes that two-thirds of United States schools have the ability to let go of their teachers. Keeping on ineffective teachers, or teachers who act inappropriately in the classroom is detrimental to the students.  

A major concern I have with this plan, is how certain teachers will become singled out and brought under the public eye.  The criteria for assessing poor teachers on teachersunionexposed.com, asks people to send in copies of police reports filed against the teacher, and to send documentation about teachers actions in the classroom.  I'm sure that many teachers may have been falsely accused of criminal activities, and trumped up charges now going to hurt their honestly good careers.  Also, the children, parents, and other teachers who will write into this website, may have a skewed vision of who they are knocking.

Though Berman's plan is uber media friendly, due to it's seeming absurdity, it could prove to be good in the long run if schools start implementing reasonable severance plans to their bottom rung teachers.  The severance plans will, as the article states, help these professors redirect their career, since they are not wanted in the teaching community.