By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… Educated people should use terms correctly.

Now I am aware that our Governor suffers from a private school education, however, many of our legislators are products of the public school and between the two, you would think someone would know the definition of the term tenure when applied to the working situation of an educator. Or you might think that they would have learned where to look up the definition of a word.

Both the Governor and the Republican legislators have been lamenting the fact that the public schools, especially those in Clark County, are failing to do the job because of tenure. They paint a picture of schools overrun by a large number of incompetent aged educators who are just hanging on for the lush benefits and high salaries.

Teacher salaries, by the way, start at $25 dollars an hour after completing a college degree. The teacher’s salary maxes out at $50 dollars an hour after fourteen years of service and acquiring a degree called an Advanced Studies Certificate? I have no idea what that is but it is above a Masters Degree and an additional 32 hours.

In any case, the Governor and Republican legislators see this group of educators as leeches on the system and if only they could get rid of tenure, they could solve the ills of education in the State of Nevada.

The problem with this theory is that there is no tenure in the Clark County School system. The definition of tenure is the status of holding one’s position on a permanent basis without periodic contract renewals.

One must understand teachers work on a year-to-year contract. The renewal of the contract is not guaranteed. In fact, if the teacher does not sign a “letter of intent” each year or if the district does not make an offer, the contract is not renewed.

The letter of intent is a blind agreement on the part of the teacher to work for the district. This must be signed before the teacher is made aware of the conditions under which he/she will work. However, courts have ruled that it is a binding agreement.

The conditions under which the teacher’s contract may not be renewed are not set by union negotiations as the Governor and legislators would have you believe; they are set by the Nevada Revised Statues written and passed by the legislature. They are then signed into law by the Governor.

If you wish to check these out you can go to NRS 391. These statues are very clear as to how and when a teacher’s contract can be terminated. They are listed under provisions (a-s) in NRS 391.312, which states a teacher may be suspended, dismissed or not re-employed and an administrator may be demoted, suspended, dismissed or not reemployed.

There are nineteen reasons stated in the statute. These include but are not limited to, inefficiency, immorality, insubordination, neglect of duty, a justifiable decrease in the number of positions due to decreased enrollment or district reorganization, failure to show normal improvement and evidence of professional training and growth. Match this with the definition of tenure, the status of holding one’s position on a permanent basis without periodic contract renewals.

There is no tenure in the State of Nevada.

The Governor and the legislators blame the unions for the conditions under which the administration of the school districts operates. Sorry, these are Nevada Revised Statues not negotiated agreements between Clark County and the teacher’s union.

Now if the Governor and legislators want to admit that they agreed to these regulations because they were afraid of the unions they need to man up and take that responsibility.

Don’t whine about the conditions of the law when you are the ones who passed the laws. What can the unions do to you? Campaign against you and cost you an election?

If you sell your soul, don’t complain when the devil comes to collect. Don’t place the blame on union negotiations. Man up and take responsibility for your lack of backbone.

There are provisions under the law that protects the teacher from arbitrary dismissal, but there is surely no tenure that guarantees any teacher a job for a lifetime. There is a right to a show cause hearing for a post probationary teacher. The hearing process was not negotiated between the union and the school district it is set by state law.

The Governor and Republican legislators are upset because there is only a two year probationary period for teachers and many would like to extent that to three or five years. I have no problem with that, but here again, they want to blame the teacher’s union as though that is a perk negotiated with the district. Sorry, that is state law not a part of any negotiated agreement with the district. You want to change it, change it, you wrote it.

Another straw man the Governor and Republican lawmakers are showing to the public is the last hire first out issue. They argue that great first year teachers will be released in herds and droves while all those old aged, incompetent teachers will be protected.

Let’s look at the issue for what it really is. The teacher at the top of the schedule, who has spent a large amount of time and money acquiring advance knowledge costs the district twice as much as the first year teacher. If you can eliminate a teacher at the top, you can hire a first year teacher at half the price. This is purely a cost cutting, measure not a quality control issue.

The dilemma facing the 2011 legislature is that the Governor and the Republican legislators want to change the NRS that pertains to the teaching profession and cut taxes. The Democrats do not want to change the law pertaining to teachers and wish to maintain the present tax rate. Neither at this point seem to be willing to compromise and make some changes and not cut taxes as drastically as the Governor and Republicans wish and neither have the votes to override the other.

This is where we will suffer from no longer having the likes of Joe Dini, Bill Raggio and Ray Rawson in Carson City, men who understood the process of government.

Thought of the week… All government – indeed every human benefit and enjoyment every virtue and every prudent act – is founded on compromise and barter.

– Edmund Burke