I have questions for public school teachers in West Virginia. Do you have any idea of the pervasive apprehension parents of school age children have in sending their offspring off to your care and instruction? Do you know that those children represent the future for families who care about a better place in life? Do you have any feeling for the level of distrust parents have for your power to ruin that future with the stroke of a pen, a withholding of benefit of a doubt, or simply poor instruction. West Virginia state law says all children must attend school between sixth and seventeenth birthdays. Many exemptions and modifications to that law allow various other roads to obtaining an education, but basic law requires public school or a viable alternative. Parochial and other private schools are available for parents who can afford them and home schooling. is an option for parents who have qualifications and time to teach. For most, public school is only economically viable option. In short, state law forces us to submit our children to care and instruction by persons over whom we have no control. Fortunately, we have conscientious school administrators who select and hire most competent teachers they can find to fill empty slots. Parents depend upon that selection process for initial hiring and subsequent retention up to end of tenure qualification. Once three years, plus a fourth commitment is reached, protection by West Virginia Education Association (WVEA), the teacher’s union, kicks in and jobs for life become reality. Yes, teachers can still be removed after achieving tenure, but at high cost. High cost in legal fees by the school system defending against WVEA’s job protections… High cost in county education funding which won’t be available for instructional purposes. Projected costs may be so high that administrators back down on firing in order to preserve their operating budget. The teacher may remain in the classroom because county board can’t afford to fire them. I’m a parent of three children who graduated from Moorefield High School and have moved on in life. With that separation, I’m now free from constraint in speaking out about apprehension and distrust in relationships with teachers. Always, always when our children were in classes, Phoebe and I were aware that our words or actions might affect our children’s treatment in school. To my knowledge, only once did an incident occur which appeared to illustrate spite toward our children. Spite in retaliation for opinions expressed in this newspaper. Since my Unbased Opinion several weeks ago addressing inclusion of teacher’s pay signs among posted political campaign materials, I have questioned at least twenty parents and former parents of public school students about the apprehension of which I speak. Every single one I asked said yes they are/were apprehensive about treatment their child might receive at the hands of a disgruntled teacher. Recent national news is filled with stories about deaths of unarmed men in Ferguson, Missouri and New York, New York, killed by police on the street. Proffered solutions to the widening gap between police and citizens include better training, race relations training, all sorts of adjustments in the way police go about their duties. I wonder how many such problems are caused by incompetent cops who have remained on police forces because public employee unions wouldn’t let them be fired, I wonder how many incompetent teachers remain in classrooms because their unions won’t let them be fired. Again. Give up your tenure protection and I’ll work hard to compensate teachers at higher levels based upon competence not longevity.
