MADISON, Wisc. – Most people would agree that school administrators and board members should have the power to fire teachers they believe may pose a physical danger to students.

But in many states that isn’t the case, and it wasn’t in Wisconsin before June 2011. Labor contracts and state laws forced schools to go through long and expensive arbitration processes to get rid of teachers, and sometimes the arbitrators ordered their reinstatement.

That’s what happened in Wisconsin’s Kewaskum school district, which fired special education teacher Linda Kiser in 2010. She was accused of regularly using physical force to control her students, and specifically of pinching one boy on the neck and shoulders daily.

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But the teachers union challenged the action, a state arbitrator ordered the teacher’s reinstatement and a circuit court later did the same.

The school district took the case to the District II Court of Appeals, hoping they could use the state’s Act 10 to legally support the termination. Act 10 stripped most collective bargaining privileges from teachers unions and did away with the arbitration process, making it much easier for districts to fire teachers.

But an Appeals Court judge ruled Wednesday that Act 10 rules could not be imposed because it was not the law at the time of the firing, according to the Fond du Lac Recorder.

Far be it from us to question a legal ruling. But we believe this case is a clear illustration of the importance of Act 10. In the past the people hired to run local schools sometimes lacked the power to fire their own employees, even those they deemed potentially dangerous.

What an insult to students, parents, taxpayers and the concept of home rule. The arbitrators assigned to these cases did not work in the schools with the teachers in question. They had no idea what was really going on, and were in no position to determine what was best for the districts and their students.

Local voters elect school board members to make those decisions, and they should be final, unless a court of law finds something illegal with them.

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We would say this problem is in the past in Wisconsin, but that’s not necessarily true. A Madison judge earlier this week declared that broad sections of Act 10 are unconstitutional and unenforceable throughout the state, thereby allowing local teachers unions to resume full collective bargaining.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to make a final determination on the law’s legality by next summer.

That means Act 10 remains very much in peril, so schools remain in peril of being forced back into the dark ages, when they didn’t even have the power to rid themselves of allegedly abusive teachers.

This important drama is far from over. Stay tuned.