Boman, a 36-year-old lawyer from Sulligent, said Wednesday’s vote on a bill to change the state’s tenure and fair dismissal laws for educators convinced him he was in the wrong party.
Boman, elected as a Republican last November, voted against the tenure and fair dismissal bill that Democrats said removes much of the due process for teachers facing discipline or firing.
At a press conference Rep. Borman had this to say"
"During this current session I have seen this legislative body pass bills that I feel adversely affect what my people back home want, need, and deserve…
The move to blame and punish teachers, and other state and public employees has gone too far - at least for this legislator, who hasn't forgotten that he's in office to represent the voters of his district.
A look at the bill itself, from HuffPo:
The Alabama House of Representatives voted to pass the Students First Act, which does not do away entirely with teacher tenure but does streamline the teacher dismissal process. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) signed the bill on Thursday.
Here's what probably motivated Rep. Borman:
The bill keeps both tenure and the timeline for achieving it in place for teachers but eliminates the lengthy federal arbitration process for firing tenured teachers. Under the new law, teachers would be unable to appeal layoffs. School districts and community colleges would be empowered to terminate teachers "at any time" and for various reasons, such as a reduction in the number of positions available, incompetency, and "immorality."
Any time an appeals process is eliminated, justice for the worker is eliminated. Incompetence is an easy claim to make, but what does it look like, exactly? And termination any time for "immorality?" That's a deadly weapon to deploy. No wonder Representative Borman decided it was time to speak out.
cross-posted at MainSt/workingamerica.org
1 comment:
And he will be heavily reprimanded for it and possibly pay the price that our own NH Republican rep. paid when she had the audacity to speak out against her own party. It's all unravelling and Guinta and his cohorts are finding out that they can't mess with institutions like Medicare quite as easily as they had hoped.
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