Teachers Union Victory
By Staff Reporter of the Sun | April 9, 2008
In a major victory for the city teachers union and a big blow to the Bloomberg administration, budget legislation expected to pass the Legislature today includes language that would ban school boards, including the city Department of Education, from using test scores as a factor in teacher tenure decisions.
Teachers can be granted tenure after three years in the public schools, and after they receive it, firing them becomes very difficult.
The explicit ban on using test scores when considering whether to grant tenure was inserted into budget legislation earlier this year, arousing strenuous opposition from Mayor Bloomberg's schools chancellor, Joel Klein, who has been lobbying lawmakers not to let the language pass.
