BOSTON – The state’s highest court has ruled Lowell school officials can’t fire a teacher who failed two English fluency tests.So, the People of the Commonwealth expressed their franchise at the ballot box, to ensure that teachers are basically competent. Vox Populi, Vox Dei, and all that. And then our Intellectual Betters (appointed by hack politicians for a life term) decide nah, bad idea.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said a lower court could not overturn an arbitrator’s decision in favor of the teacher, Phanna Kem Robishaw.
Robishaw began teaching in the Lowell public schools in 1992 after fleeing the Khmer Rouge regime. She was one of five teachers at her school of Cambodian birth, where nearly half the student population was Cambodian.
In 2002, voters approved a ballot question designed to eliminate bilingual education and require schools prove teachers are proficient in English.
So the people of Massachusetts need to shut up and fall in line, and quit oppressing their civil servants with nuisance demands (like demonstrating basic competence).
But I'm sure it will be completely different when the government runs our healthcare.
Of course it will be different.
ReplyDeleteIt'll be worse.
It's one thing to homeschool. Are you brushing up on your EMT skills so you can home-medicate?
Well, while I agree with the sentiment, that's not really what the court said. The court noted that arbitration had taken place. Normally, when two parties go to arbitration, they agree to abide by the result, and agree they will not go to court about the issue.
ReplyDeleteThat's basically what the court said here: the parties already have an arbitration agreement that they have to abide by. The court said nothing at all about whether or not you can fire teachers who fail english exams.
So: the real question here is why the arbitration decision fell the way it did. The article says nothing at all about that...