What’s with the Assembly Education Committee? On the one hand, they’re squirting out preposterous bills that prohibit districts from finding cheaper ways to provide non-educational services and getting rid of incompetent teachers; on the other hand, they keep telling us to be efficient and accountable. Just this week they released two bills, both strongly backed by NJEA. One would prohibit districts from privatizing food and custodial services. Another gives tenure-like rights to non-tenured teachers.

The latter is worth a closer look, though it’s gotten little media attention.

Assemblyman Joseph Cryan sponsored a bill labeled A-4142 this week in the Assembly Education Committee. The Committee unanimously approved it. This bill prohibits school districts from dismissing non-tenured employees without arbitration. It’s instant tenure, life long job security from the moment you walk in the door. Yes, school boards can arbitrate but it’s such a long,expensive process that many won’t even bother.

This bill came as a big surprise to the New Jersey Supervisors and Administrators Association, especially since the Appellate Division of New Jersey Superior Court decided two cases recently that came to opposite conclusions. NJPSA Staff Counsel David Nash describes Northvale Board v. Northvale Education Association, in which the union charged that the termination of a part-time teacher and part-time secretary, neither tenured, couldn’t be done without “just cause.” The court held that as long as the district gave the contractual 60 days notice the district was permitted to the dismissal. The second case was Pascack Valley Regional High School Board of Education v. Pasack Valley Regional Support Staff Association, which involved a mid-year termination of a custodian. The union argued that arbitration was necessary because the dismissal was a form of “discipline,” but the court said the district gave the contractual 15-day notice. Seems clear enough – if you’re not tenured, then you can be dismissed if given the proper notice.

Well, maybe not clear enough. If A4140 passes into legislation, tenure protection written into collective bargaining agreements will extend to individual contracts, i.e., contracts between a district and an untenured employee. Here’s the exact language from the proposed bill:

In all cases, the terms of a collectively negotiated agreement shall supersede the terms of any individual contract between a public employer and individual public employee whose position is within the bargaining unit covered by the collective agreement. No term or provision in such an individual contract may be applied or interpreted in a manner which limits, restricts, or circumscribes, or has the effect of limiting, restricting, or circumscribing a provision or right contained within the collective agreement.

Okay. All employees who are members of a bargaining unit – in other words, all teachers, aides, custodians, etc. who work for a school district, even if they’ve worked there for a week or a day – cannot be dismissed unless the district is ready to go to court. In spite of the fact that districts everywhere are laying off (or getting ready to lay off) staff because the State has cut aid or reneged on mandated aid payments, districts can’t reduce the number of non-tenured staff.

The Garden State Coalition of Schools has a little write-up about the bill, which notes that there was a “lack of transparency” about the proceedings of the Education Committee because there was “virtually no public notice, no vetting allowed by abrupt process.” The GSC also notes that the bill amounts to a “mixed message: district cost-saving measures nullified while legislature tells districts they spend too much.”

Maybe this is a good thing. The union-backed bill (hey, even the NJSBA called it a union-backed bill) egregiously places teachers’ rights to lifetime employment and benefits over the ability of a school to be fiscally responsible and fair to kids. Is there any clearer indication that the leadership of NJEA values job protection, even without tenure, over competent teaching or fiscal solvency? What an embarrassment to the many good teachers who care about educating children.