The New York State Senate Holds Hearings On Teacher Discipline But Lets The DOE Off The Hook In Their Complicity Of Why It Takes So Long To Complete

Yesterday the New York state Senate held hearings on the State educator disciplinary laws, known as State Law 3020-a and called selected witnesses to testify. Absent were any educators that was subject to this process. You would think the Senate would actually call an educator or two that were involved with the process but of cause they didn't. Instead, they called selected leaders with little or no understanding how the process really works and heard their own spin.

For example, representing the DOE was the Mayor's poodle, Chancellor Dennis Walcott, who made a point to vilify teachers as he attempted to get the Senate to change the law by assuming all educators are guilty and it would be up to these educators to prove otherwise. His testimony was reported by Gotham Schools here. He simply spouted the Mayor's original contract proposal back when Joel Klein was Chancellor and it can be found here.

What was not said at the hearings was the DOE's complicity in dragging out the 3020-a process for years. Or their habit of embellishing, twisting, perverting, and outright lying in their attempts to get teachers to resign simply because a Principal did not like them. Furthermore, nothing was said about how the DOE filed 3020-a charges only to offer deals with 50% of the teachers they charged. If these teachers were really guilty, why offer them a deal? That is what the Senate should have looked at, the DOE's abuse of the teacher disciplinary process.