This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: A group backed by wealthy financier Rex Sinquefield has apparently renewed its effort to get rid of teacher tenure in Missouri.
TeachGreat.org, a group wholly funded by Sinquefield, has submitted an initiative-petition proposal to the Missouri secretary of state’s office.
The proposed ballot measure for the 2014 ballot would bar teacher tenure. Under tenure, a teacher has job protections after a certain number of years on the job in a particular school district and can be removed only for cause.
The proposed petition is being reviewed by state officials, and should be on the secretary of state’s website for public review in about a week, an office spokesman said.
The petition has yet to be approved for circulation. Roughly 147,000-160,000 signatures from registered voters would be needed to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot. The exact number depends on which congressional districts are used for signature collection.
A similar ballot measure was filed in 2012, but no petition drive was completed to get it onto a statewide ballot.
Sinquefield’s lawyer handling the latest tenure proposal, Marc Ellinger, couldn’t be reached for comment. But previously, Ellinger has maintained that tenure protects bad teachers and isn't helpful to good ones.
Among other things, the proposed change would bar state funding for schools that provide tenure to teachers. Contracts would be limited to no longer than three years.
Missouri NEA President Chris Guinther reaffirmed her group’s opposition to the idea and cited the ballot proposal’s mandate that “state-controlled standardized test scores” be used to evaluate teachers. She said that approach fails to recognize various factors that affect student achievement and other measures needed to evaluate a teacher’s classroom skills.
"Attacking teachers and public education is nothing new for Sinquefield, whose ongoing attacks are a clear manifestation of his hostility toward public schools," said Guinther, a teacher on leave from the Francis Howell School District.
She cited previous controversies involving Sinquefield’s views, such as his push to replace Missouri’s income tax with a sales tax and his comments linking the Ku Klux Klan to public schools. (Sinquefield later apologized.)
"Everyone should be held accountable for student success, but specifically attacking teachers distracts from the real problems facing our schools -- chronic underfunding, overcrowded classrooms and unfulfilled promises from the legislature," Guinther said. "Sinquefield's proposal views children as interchangeable parts in a one-size-fits-all system.”
