Romney Tries to Free Up the Hatchet

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Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has recently endorsed a 10-point plan that, among other things, would make it easier to fire teachers in low-performing school districts who fail for two consecutive years to meet annual test score benchmarks. The plan, developed by a commission the Governor charged with investigating how to improve the state's lowest performing schools, would ease the constraints currently placed on administrators by collective bargaining agreements. Representative Steve Walsh, a Democrat from Lynn, called it an "attack on teachers." While such rhetoric is unhelpful, we do wonder why only teachers in low-performing schools are being targeted. Does a bad teacher in a good school deserve to keep teaching any more than a bad teacher in a bad school?