By MaryAnn Martinez
Every public school teacher in Arizona could be laid off or have their pay cut at any time for any reason.
The state legislature made it possible in July, when it voted to allow for tenured teachers to get pink slips if budget cuts call for it. In Arizona, teachers achieve tenure status after signing four consecutive contracts with a school district. In the Tucson Unified School District, about two-thirds of the district's 3,600 teachers have tenure.
"Basically, it eliminates the practice of keeping and retaining lower-performing, less qualified teachers," says Republican State Representative Frank Antenori.
Antenori is one of several Tucson state lawmakers who supported the measure. He tells KGUN districts and principals reached out to him after teacher layoffs earlier this year. He claims those educators were concerned qualified teachers not protected by seniority were let go, while tenured, under performing teachers kept their jobs.
"It's just a silly practice that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world," Antenori says. "If I don't perform at my job, I get fired. It doesn't matter if I've been there six years, ten years or 15 years."
With possible layoffs in January and May, the president of the Tucson Education Association, Luci Messing, says teachers are willing to prove they're performing well.
"I'm not sure who they think is going to work in schools when the word gets out this is how the State of Arizona treats public employees, specifically teachers." Messing says.
She calls the move "a direct attack" by the state for the teacher's union lobbying efforts to protect K-12 funding.
KGUN asked Antenori to respond to that.
"I believe that we need reforms to the education system, and the teacher's union is standing in the way of that," he says. "They're in self-protection mode. They play this game that they try to protect children. That's a load of bull. They're only there for themselves."
Messing says teachers are already rallying to repeal the policy. The union's lawyer is looking into whether teacher's contracts were violated. She promises they won't be silenced and had her own message for legislators who voted in favor.
"Don't pretend that you support public education," Messing says. "What you're doing is killing public education."
