Pending bill in Pa to allow layoffs of teachers with seniority?

[DebJ]

My husband, who is one year from being able to take retirement, keeps saying that the Pennsylvania legislature has introduced a bill that would allow school districts to make layoffs that disregard seniority protections, in order for
the districts to save more money by laying off teachers that are paid the most money instead of the newest teachers.

I'm not a lawyer, but I keep saying to him that can't be legal; the state can't step in and void a contract between two independent parties when both agreed upon that contract. But I do know that one party to a contract can go to court to get the contract or provisions in a contract voided if it becomes impossible for one party to perform the contract or portions therein...but this would be generated by the parties in the contract, not by an outside source.

Does anyone know if this is true?

My husband, who has always been able to sleep at will for stretches up to eleven hours, now can barely get 5 hours a night. He has heart trouble and diabetes, and I'm getting worried. He's just not the kind of guy to ever worry about much of anything...to the point of being really annoying, almost careless, we've actually fought over him not worrying about things. To see him like this is breaking my heart, and I fear could take his life.

He has been in the inner city schools for 28 years. As I said above, he is eligible for full retirement after one more year of teaching (not that we can afford that, because we would have to pay $1500 a month to continue health care, but at least we could choose either health care or a home...) He is in his early 60s. If he is laid off, no one will hire him. Even getting daily sub work would be difficult, and that pays less than $18k a year, even if you work every day.

If he were to get laid off, we will lose everything, because I can't find work either: I just got my teaching cert a few years ago in my early 50s. My previous skills in office management are now useless and I can't do the physical labor I once did in restaurant management. We would not only lose our home; we would lose health care, too. We both had previous problems in our lives and had just started over again with this marriage and house and new happy life 8 years ago. If we lose everything now, there is no way we would ever be able to recover.

We would become human disposables in our disposable society: use a man up to teach inner city kids for three decades; let him take all the verbal and physical abuse from students; let him be held responsible for teaching students that don't want to learn and fight working all of the time; then throw him away.

[JPZenger]

1. Would not override contracts

According to newspaper reports, the bill would not override existing contracts. However, if seniority was not written into a teacher's contract, then the School Board could "furlough" based upon other criteria.

This is part of a nationwide push. The argument is that schools with budget cuts are forced to get rid of many great younger teachers, while they are forced to keep some dead wood.

The opposing argument is that there is not a suitable way of measuring teacher quality, and that teachers who are in good with the administration will be kept, while others who speak up would be punished with firing.

[DebJ]

2. Thanks. I googled but couldn't find anything. Now the

problem remains that the union just voted to re-open the contract that was just signed in October...so if the school board does the usual and takes a year to actual negotiate, then, hmm, do they have a contract or not? I guess so since they operate under the old contract until a new one is signed.

[femmocrat]

3. Why did the union vote to re-open the contract?

That so rarely happens.... we have only re-opened twice in the 17 yrs. I have taught here... and both times were to change our health insurance due to issues with the insurance carriers.

[demodonkey]

4. It's not just seniority... it's ageism. And unfortunately it is rampant, even on DU.

Look around at all the "boomer bashing" posts and threads one sees from time to time. It's disgusting, especially when it's coming from so-called progressives on here.

I am sure Corbett in PA talks to Walker in WI. PSEA and all who support teachers in Pennsylvania must get ready to stand up for the right of workers to organize in the Keystone State. It's coming.

My dad was an educator and he taught me the importance of teachers becoming and staying organized and strong. He was a member of PSEA and NEA Resolutions Committee when I was a kid. Some of my early memories are traveling as a family to NEA conventions all over the USA. Great education for a kid in itself. Eventually my father had to take a leave from membership when he became a Superintendent (considered management) but went back as a retiree until his death. My mom is a retired PSEA-NEA teacher too.