Public School Policies

Amidst numerous allegations of sexual misconduct among staff members, the New York City Department of Education is taking another look at disciplinary procedures and policies regarding teachers in their schools. A recent arrest of a Brooklyn gym teacher brings the grand total of school employees facing potential criminal charges to more than a dozen during 2012 alone. Now the questions become what to do about the teachers that have been identified as possible sex offenders and how to prevent these types of problems from occurring in the future.

Latest Arrest May Result in Firing

The New York Daily News reports on the recent arrest of Esran Boothe, a gym teacher at Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment, who was accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old female student. Boothe, who has worked in New York schools since 2003, was charged with third-degree sex abuse and forcible touching. Currently, Boothe has been removed from the classroom, and the chancellor of NYC schools, Dennis Walcott, is looking into having the instructor fired.

“A staff member who violates the trust of our students and families does not deserve to work in our schools – period,” Walcott told the New York Daily News. “Anyone who does will be removed and we will do everything in our power to make sure they never work here again.”

This video reports on the sexual abuse situation in NYC schools.

As Louisiana Governor Jindal Fights to Reform Louisiana Schools, Teachers Push Back

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has taken his sweeping education reform to state lawmakers, while educators in the state who are more than a little unhappy with Jindal’s proposals are finding ways to push back. Jindal’s plans would usher in some of the most significant education reforms in the country, with Jindal tackling sticky issues like teacher tenure and retirement plans, charter schools, and a voucher program that would impact half the children in the state. While Jindal’s proposals are garnering support from many state lawmakers and residents, others are downright furious with Jindal’s ideas on how to transform the state’s education system.

Teacher Tenure Tied to Job Performance

One of Jindal’s proposals that has won the ire of local teachers’ unions involves how teachers are hired and granted tenure. According to the Daily Comet, the bill would shift hiring new teachers to principals and superintendents rather than school boards. The bill would also make significant changes to current teacher tenure procedures, which are tied to annual evaluations for three years. Current evaluations rank teachers as either satisfactory or unsatisfactory, which makes it challenging to weed ineffective teachers out from the rest.

Under Jindal’s new tenure proposal, teachers would be subject to annual five-year reviews under a more complex rating system. Teachers who received “highly effective” ratings for five years straight would be eligible for tenure. “Ineffective” ratings would result in loss of

Utah may boast the most restrictive sexual education laws in the country if a new bill passed through the state legislature is signed into law. The new law would restrict schools from teaching any type of sex ed in public schools outside of abstinence and would prohibit discussion on contraception and sexually transmitted diseases. Despite the fact that this bill has passed in both the state House and Senate, there is plenty of opposition to the bill with state lawmakers, educators, and even parents.

About the Bill

Referred to as HB363 and sponsored by Bill Wright (R-Holden), this bill would define sex education in the state of Utah as abstinence-only and would ban schools from providing instruction on sexual intercourse, homosexuality, contraceptive methods, and sexually transmitted diseases. According to Deseret News, Wright sponsored the bill as a response to what he called “inappropriate material” presented in classrooms. Specifically, Wright was opposed to material produced by Planned Parenthood being distributed to students. Wright said he believes sex education is something that should take place in the home, rather than the school.

Currently, Utah schools are allowed to offer sex-education courses with some restrictions attached. Schools are allowed to provide instruction about sexual intercourse and contraception without advocating for it. The classes are offered on an elective basis, so parents can choose not to have children take the course if they don’t want them to.

“A lot of our schools are already teaching abstinence,” Wright told

A proposal to give state funding directly to high school students, rather than public schools, continues to be hashed out by Utah lawmakers. The bill would take per-pupil funding and put it into a savings account for the individual student, rather than sending it directly to the local school district. This money could then be used by the student to pay for public or charter school, online classes, or even courses at the college level. Like other bills touting school choice, this proposal has been met with strong opinions on both sides of the aisle.

About HB123

The new bill, dubbed HB123, is a proposal that would put money into the hands of students and their parents, rather than the school system. The bill was originally introduced by Republican state Representative John Dougall, according to the Huffington Post. Dougall believes that his bill would offer a number of advantages to Utah high school students, including the creation of more competition between schools, which could raise the bar on the quality of education in the state overall.

“Today what we have is top down funding and we know many of the challenges that come with top down funding,” Dougall told the Huffington Post. “HB123 is what I call grassroots funding where we fund the student rather than institutions.”

Dougall estimates that the current funding amount students would expect to receive from the state would be approximately $6,400 per student, per year, based on

A new bill aimed at the Arizona senate would punish public school teachers who violated Federal Communication Commission guidelines by using profanity and obscenities in the classroom. The bill was introduced by Arizona State Senator Lori Klein, after a parent complained about a teacher who used foul language in his daughter’s class. However, not everyone is in favor of the bill; some say it is an unnecessary measure that should be handled by districts, rather than at the state level.

Origins of the Bill

According to a report at News Day, the original complaint came from Floyd Brown, a parent of a high school student and a long-time Republican strategist. Brown was responsible for the infamous “Willie Horton” ad during the 1998 presidential campaign that some thought played a major role in Michael Dukakis losing the election. Brown told News Day that his daughter, a sophomore, came home from school upset one day because one of her teachers was using the F-word in class.

Brown took the issue to school administrators, but told CBS News that the educators did not take him seriously. When his complaints went unaddressed, he pulled his daughter out of the high school, and she is now being homeschooled.

“I’m not going to subject my daughter to that kind of environment,” Brown told CBS News.

Next, Brown took his complaint about the teacher’s language to Klein, since she represented his Arizona district. Klein called the language “totally inappropriate” and told CBS that