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Alabama Republican lawmakers meeting Tuesday said the’ve drawn a “line in the sand” on government reform starting with demanding passage next week of a bill changing the tenure law for teachers and others.

They say it will make firing teachers and other employees less costly and time consuming, although the Alabama Education Association and its supporters say it’s an attack on the state’s educators, Birmingham News writer Kim Chandler reports.

The online community’s response seemed a largely supportive voice for change, although a couple of commenters warned that a weaker tenure system is not a good idea for education. Read some of what people are saying.

• “EXCELLENT move is right! Now bad teachers can be fired. Like every other job. Hubbard is right. Welcome to real world. ” — SOS

• “Good teachers don’t have anything to worry about. Even mediocre teachers don’t have anything to worry about. This just makes getting rid of the truly bad teachers a little easier.” — redeag1e

• “Reducing the AEA’s power is of utmost importance. Their influence on state politics over the years has only hurt the schools and helped breed the rampant corruption in the Legislature. I actually don’t believe this tenure law goes far enough, but I believe in baby steps. Get this passed now, then eventually get rid of it all together. The “teachers would all be fired for political reasons” is a weak excuse to keep incompetent teachers on the payroll. I’m not saying it would never happen, but not as often as the tenure supporters would like you to believe. I had a teacher in high school who nearly every day, talked about how the school couldn’t get rid of him no matter how bad they wanted to. He didn’t do anything but read from the book all day and bash the administration.

“We just had term limits on many Legislators last election.” — notlsufan

• “You could not be more wrong, red. Teachers won’t (don’t) get fired because they are good or bad in the classroom- or they rarely do. Without tenure or the right to appeal, even the best classroom teacher will be fired because the powerful or politically connected parent will see to it when Little Johnnie is disciplined, when Little Susie is not played in the soccer game, when Little Jimmy is expelled or suspended because he broke the rules about phones/drugs/etc., or the teacher, as a coach/advisor/sponsor (which they will now have to always say yes to the extra duty because they have no protection to say no to “extra duty”), didn’t show the important person’s child special consideration. Been there and done several of the above.

“Tenure is there to protect the good teacher, not the bad, and to protect them from the political forces beyond their control. Not just curriculum pressure, but political pressure from the powerful in the community surrounding extra-curricular duties. Without protection, teachers will have no classroom power to control even the most ill-behaved students.

“In addition, every powerful community person/politician can make way for their son or daughter or sister or neice or cousin by bumping a teacher that is employed. Oh the can of worms this will open. Run, college students, run from a career in education as the citizens of Alabama do not, in any way, value your service.” — MathProf

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