TOPEKA, Kan. – Stunned teachers union officials in Kansas are crying foul, claiming the state legislature pulled a fast one on them last week by approving a school financing bill that would also do away with the teacher tenure system.

They say the bill was pushed through without the normal amount of scrutiny or debate. They say the public never had a chance to weigh in on it.

All of that may be true. But it’s only because the Republicans behind the bill have learned to play the union’s games and turn the tables when necessary.

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They’ve learned that it’s better to get a good law passed quickly, rather than allow the unions to plan mass protests to attract media attention and gain public sympathy, or use their considerable wealth and influence to kill the legislation through lobbying.

The simple fact is that the political process is a dirty one, and Kansas Republicans are learning to return fire when fired upon.

The teachers unions started the current war by being among those who encouraged officials in several school districts to file a lawsuit against the state, based on the claim that public schools are constitutionally underfunded.

The case worked its way up to the Kansas Supreme Court, which took a middle position and ordered the state to pay an extra $129 million to lower income school districts in the fall, to help level the playing field between wealthy and poor districts.

State lawmakers were resentful of the court’s effort to steal their traditional authority over public school funding.

But instead of refusing to honor the court order and prompting a state constitutional crisis, the Republican majority in the legislature decided to approve the bill, with one significant amendment – the teacher tenure system would be trashed, meaning teachers throughout the state would no longer have lifetime job security and would be accountable for their performance on a year-to-year basis.

Gov. Sam Brownback is expected to sign the bill.

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Without tenure, schools would have a much easier time firing veteran teachers who aren’t getting the job done.

Governing for the people, not special interests

Critics of the move bitterly claim that it was arranged in secrecy and pushed through without public input and committee hearings.

“No legislative committee ‘worked’ the proposal, combing through it with legislative staff and voting on any changes and the final product,” LJWorld.com noted. “And unlike many major policy initiatives, which are debated in the media and elsewhere for months, even years, this one was approved almost as soon as it was introduced.

“The proposal was presented last weekend as an amendment on the Senate floor and then passed within hours though the Senate and House under the guidance of conservative legislative leaders.”

The critics couldn’t be more correct. And in general, public scrutiny and debate over proposed legislation is a healthy and necessary process.

But sometimes lawmakers have to act quickly when opportunity presents itself.

Putting such a proposal on the table for public debate would have invited a circus, and put the issue into the hands of wealthy special interests, rather than the people who were elected to make laws.

The unions would have certainly responded like they did when a similar law was proposed in Wisconsin in 2011. Thousands of Wisconsin union members camped on the statehouse lawn in Madison, pushed their way into the capitol building, disrupted regular government activities and created several days of chaos and uncertainly.

In the end Wisconsin lawmakers held firm and passed the anti-collective bargaining legislation, but not before the state was torn down the middle by angry unionists who bitterly fought to maintain their cushy spot atop the education establishment.

There’s no guarantee that would have happened in Kansas. But the wealthy unions could have flexed their political muscle and killed this legislation through ugly political arm-twisting. How democratic would that process have been?

So lawmakers did the next best thing to consulting the people – they exercised their rights to govern on behalf of the people, instead of letting the unions determine law by sending out their horde of lobbyists.

Good schools require good teachers – and accountability

The bottom line is that many states have either dumped or watered down teacher tenure laws in recent years, for obvious reasons. Most of these laws have the practical effect of giving teachers lifelong job security after their first few years on the job, regardless of their performance in the classroom.

Firing tenured teachers is a long and expensive process for schools, even when the teachers are ridiculously unqualified or obviously guilty of some serious offense.

That makes the task of improving academics nearly impossible for public school administrators. Imagine being responsible for improving any product when you have no power for force employees to follow your directives?

“District administrators have asked legislators to repeal our tenure law for many years,” state Sen. Susan Wagle, president of the Kansas senate, was quoted as saying. “Since No Child Left Behind became law, administrators and schools have a much greater level of accountability, along with the burden of delivering improved student outcomes.

“The outcomes can only be attained if they control their employees rather than the teachers unions (controlling them).”

The union defenders are throwing out the usual set of arguments.

They say without tenure protection, teachers could be fired for unfair reasons, like refusing to give a passing grade to the school board president’s son or the star quarterback on the football team.

We believe the market would take care of such concerns.

It’s been well documented that parents and students hold excellent teachers in very high esteem. You see evidence of that every time a district tries to fire a popular teacher for tenuous reasons. Families and taxpayers demand excellent teachers and hold their school boards accountable for finding, hiring and maintaining such employees.

No board member or administrator who wants to maintain their position is going to chase out a good teacher for stupid reasons. They would be inviting the wrath of the community and possibly risking lawsuits.

The condition of public schools in Wisconsin should offer hope to Kansas residents. Since that state did away with tenure and collective bargaining in 2011, some poor teachers have been shown the door, but many outstanding teachers have found themselves in a position to increase their incomes. Other school districts bid for their services, and they can sometimes switch districts for as much as $10,000-$15,000 more per year.

That type of raise is unheard of in union schools.

Some Wisconsin administrators also say they have never heard teachers talking so much about student achievement and various strategies to improve it. A lot of good Wisconsin teachers got a wake-up call and have increased their efforts out of necessity.

Americans say they want better schools, with better instruction. The only way to attain that is to give schools the freedom to demand the best efforts of their teachers, and the power to dump those that simply can’t cut it.

Guaranteed employment for subpar teachers is a recipe for continued mediocrity in schools. Republican lawmakers in Kansas understand that.

They also understand that the only way to beat the unions and improve education is to jump in the mud and play the same sort of underhanded political games that the unions have perfected over the years.

They did what they had to do, and the children of Kansas will be better off for it.