My email to Representative Goodman was one of about 400 she received. Here it is, FYI.
Feb 20
Dear Representative Goodman,
I am completely dismayed by what I have read about HB 2634. Commissioner DeBacker and a lot of Kansas educators have been working together to develop the Kansas Educator Evaluation Protocol to meet the federal government's requirements, and they have gone about it in a methodical, logical manner. It is being field-tested already! It seems counterproductive, even chaotic, to impose another system on educators at this point in time.
I'm even more aghast at the proposed amendment that forces a teacher to prove he or she is effective if it should come to the point of a due process hearing. I concede that there are ineffective teachers who should find another work, but there are also ineffective administrators in at least the same proportions! It is very unfair--even counter to our American system of justice--to put the burden of proof on the teacher. Administrators should have to do their jobs and document those things that they say make a teacher ineffective! You wouldn't ask doctors to prove to a jury that they did everything right from start to finish; instead, in the U.S., we ask someone who accuses a doctor of malpractice to prove the doctor did something wrong!
Finally, I believe strongly that all students deserve to have teachers who not only know the curriculum they are teaching, but also how to teach it. For a doctor, knowledge of anatomy is not enough to do surgery! We need practioners who have learned the procedures and have done supervised practice. As I understand it, an amendment recently adopted would allow untrained, untested teachers to practice on our students.
Please vote NO on HB 2634.
Ginger Riddle