HOLYOKE, Mass. – English teacher Agustin Morales claimed in 2009 that his teaching contract was not renewed because he is Latino, and “I won that case,” he told MassLive.com.

Now Morales, who was elected president of the teachers union May 8, is claiming his latest layoff notice is in retaliation for his outspoken criticisms of school leaders, and he’s fighting this case too.

“I wasn’t surprised when I received the letter. I spoke out. I knew the risk,” Morales told the news site. “I’d just hoped we could act like adults and have a civil discourse.”

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Morales’ discourse, however, isn’t exactly civil.

School officials working to increase abysmal test scores in the district instructed teachers to post “data walls” in their classrooms with students’ test scores and reading levels and other data next to their names.

Morales flatly refused, MassLive.com reports.

The union president-elect has also repeatedly criticized student testing, and blamed students’ family income level and “the socioeconomic status of Holyoke” for the terrible academic performance of students at Maurice A. Donahue School where he taught.

“The intelligence of my students can’t be measured by simple tests. It can’t be classified, grouped into a box,” he told the news site.

That’s where Morales is dead wrong.

“2013 MCAS test scores show Donahue students tested at 28 percent proficient in English, 19 percent in math and 6 percent in science when compared to what’s expected at their grade level,” MassLive.com reports.

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Morales blames the bad scores on the fact that 89.2 percent of the school’s students come from low income families, 28.7 need help speaking English, and 25.3 percent have disabilities.

But what the disgruntled teacher apparently doesn’t realize is that there are charter schools and private schools across the country that have a much higher rate of poor and minority students that send all of them on to college. There are charter schools that help these students succeed in life despite their circumstances, but it takes dedicated, no-excuses type teachers with the right attitude.

It also takes all teachers pulling in the same direction, working on the same team, to turn things around.

It seems quite clear Morales is not that type of teacher.

Whether he agrees with school officials about data walls, or student testing practices, or anything else, is irrelevant. Morales is not on board with the district’s approach to helping minority students, as evidenced by his repeated public criticisms.

“This past year, we’ve given up teaching time for test prep time. Students spent twenty-eight to thirty days in testing mode,” he told the news site. “We can’t possibly teach everything on it and our kids don’t do well.

“It’s killing the morale, stifling creativity and hurting students’ self-esteem,” he said.

School officials likely are saying the same thing about Morales’ “blame poverty” excuse for his students’ academic performance, which is a cancer that infects far too many schools through their local teachers unions.

Of course, Morales’ colleagues, other local labor leaders, and disillusioned parents are coming to the teacher’s rescue with a public petition on MoveOn.org.

“The Holyoke Firefighters Local #1693 stand in solidarity with the Holyoke teachers and we fully support Mr. Morales in this travesty against organized labor,” Chris Butler, president of the firefighters union, said in a statement.

The real travesty, however, is that Morales and other like-minded educators are writing off low-income and minority students simply because they’ve been unsuccessful in helping them learn. The situation in Holyoke isn’t about organized labor, or teachers’ rights, or the debate over standardized testing.

It’s about helping students succeed in school and in life, and doing what it takes to overcome their disadvantaged background.

Judging by Morales’ history of making excuses and barking back at school leaders, it seems Holyoke administrators were more than justified in showing him the door.