Stein Would Repeal Governor's Teacher Firing Measure

Press Release

Gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein announced that she will seek repeal of a key part of Governor Patrick's "so-called education reform law." Speaking yesterday to students at a campaign gathering, Stein said that the bill which Patrick signed with great fanfare earlier this year is "A phony education reform bill that has more to do with the ambitions of the school privatization industry than with anything that will truly help students. The provisions for mass teacher firings are particularly reprehensible. They allow a superintendant to take over a school, tear up the teacher contracts, fire all the teachers en masse, and bring a private charter school company in to run the school. The school would be able to tap local tax money without having strict accountability to the local school board. It's a dangerous law that opens the door to an attack on our public schools by privatization interests."

Noting that Patrick had defended the law with assertions that it would help "underperforming schools", Stein continued: "Mass teacher firings is not one of the proven strategies for helping struggling students. The only thing it's guaranteed to do is open up profitable business for charter school operators."

"Most of the children who the Governor claims are suffering from underperforming teachers are living in poverty, struggling with asthma and learning disabilities, being kept inside because the streets aren't safe, or live in homes where English is not the primary language. We need to heal these communities and make sure these children are prepared to learn. Firing their teachers isn't going to solve their problems. Our real problem isn't underperforming schools - it's an underperforming Governor and an underperforming administration."

"Parents and educators in troubled communities have been crying out for help for the past four years. But the Governor's prescription for them resembles nothing that they have asked for. This is being done to them - not being done with them. It's no accident that the mass firings law is targeting schools in communities of color or with larger non-English speaking populations. These communities are least able to fight back. You'd never be able to impose this kind of thing on a more affluent community - not yet, anyway."

"I will seek the repeal of the mass firings provisions in the Governor's bill. I will instead add provisions that involve working with the teacher workforce - and using innovative team teaching methods that have a record of success in other states. We have to recognize teachers as valuable partners, not use them as scapegoats. Governor Patrick, like the Republican governors before him, is taking too much advice from privatization advocates who have an agenda that is hostile to our public schools. It's time that we had a Governor who defended our public schools and truly put the students first."

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