"Bad Teacher," a raunchy comedy starring Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake and Jason Segal, is scheduled to arrive at multiplexes across the land on June 24. Diaz's character drinks on the job, takes "copious amounts of drugs," and curses at her students. The plot apparently involves her character trying to seduce a well-heeled but straight-laced colleague to pay for her breast implants.
Once again, though, the finest minds in Hollywood are way behind the zeitgeist.
Larry Sand, president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network and a regular City Journal California contributor, writes at RedCounty today about an eye-opening audit of the state's Commission on Teacher Credentialing. The CTC's mission is to "ensure integrity and high quality in the preparation, conduct and professional growth of the educators who serve California's public schools." Turns out, the agency has been grossly deficient in carrying out that assignment. Or, as Sand puts it, CTC is "in fact a corrupt, callous and self-serving club that cares nothing at all about your kids."
Among the audit's findings that Sand highlights:
- As of the summer of 2009, according to the commission's management, the commission's Division of Professional Practices (division) had accumulated a backlog of 12,600 unprocessed reports of arrest and prosecution (RAP sheets)--almost three times a typical annual workload.
- These conditions appear to have significantly delayed processing of alleged misconduct and potentially allowed educators of questionable character to retain a credential.
- For nearly 40 percent of the cases auditors reviewed, it took more than 80 days to open a case after receiving a report of misconduct and nearly two years in one case and three years in another case.
- It did not effectively track the status of cases that, if the credential holder is convicted of the crime charged, require mandatory revocation of the credential--it took one and a half months and six months, respectively, in two cases to revoke the credential after receiving court documents.
- It relied on the prosecution of criminal charges and delayed in seeking additional information from school districts, witnesses, and alleged victims, thus jeopardizing its ability to obtain information needed to investigate the misconduct.
There's plenty more where that came from. But as Sand points out, the scandal here doesn't begin and end with the bureaucrats at the state credentialing agency. "There is an important player in this scandal that has thus far escaped any scrutiny: the California Teachers Association." Sand explains:
The CTA, with its hairy-but-not-so-hidden-hands, has a full complement of "liaisons" which act as representatives of the union and monitor, advocate, lobby, testify, etc. before every state government agency that has an effect on education policy. Hence, the CTA liaisons are regulars at CTC meetings, and are not shy about weighing in on issues affecting teacher competency. Since the union has a terrific record in protecting criminal and incompetent teachers, this is hardly surprising.
Sand also notes the audit has resulted in changes at the top, with the CTC's executive director and the general counsel both tendering their resignations last week. That's good news. Doubtless, new management will see to it that new safeguards and procedures will be put into place that ensure such abuses are curtailed in the future.
But is that enough? Although Sand doesn't put it in quite these terms, the mismanagement, curruption and garden-variety inefficiency of this one watchdog agency seems to be the logical outcome of a system designed to protect the interests of certain adults at the expense of the public it is supposed to serve. The teachers unions often like to say their members don't have "tenure," as such. Their contracts, rather, guarantee the right to "due process." If you've ever wondered what exactly that process entails, look no further.
Join the conversation