Monica Irwin

Missouri Amendment Three Teachers Amendment

The third amendment in the Missouri Constitution should be voted no

to changing it in the November 4th election.

By: Monica Irwin

Dr. Smith
Intro to Government
20 October 2014

Monica Irwin

MO Amendment 3
On November 4th, 2014 people will be voting on whether the Missouri amendment
three should stay the same or be amended. Right now, amendment three is teacher tenure.
After a teacher has been employed for five years by the same school district and stays in that
school district, they receive tenure and are considered a permanent teacher. They have that
job for life but there are certain circumstances where their contract can be terminated. Overall,
tenure secures teachers jobs by protecting them from being fired for non-related work,
personal, and political reasons. (Wickham)
If voted yes to amend the Missouri Constitution, teachers are required to be evaluated
by a standards based performance evaluation system. This means in order for school districts to
obtain local and state funding they need the states approval first. It will call for teachers to be
dismissed, retained, demoted, promoted, and paid mostly using data based on student
performance as part of the evaluation system. Teachers are required to enter into contracts of
three years or fewer with public school districts, with exceptions. Lastly, teachers are prohibited
from organizing or collectively bargaining regarding the design and implementation of the
teacher evaluation system. This change in the Constitution will not affect taxes. (2014 Ballot
Measures)
Teach Great, the group behind the ballot measure, contends that the measure will
reward good teachers, support struggling teachers, and make it easier for schools to hire
teachers (Will). People who are good at their jobs get paid more based on how well they work.
If a person is really good at what they do, they should get paid more than a person who is not
as good at that job. Most jobs give their workers some benefits for being at that job for a while
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but they care more about the workers performance than their time spent there. Supporters of
the proposed amendment believe that teachers should be treated like any other job and that
the pay should be based on performance and not time spent at one place. Also, standardized
testing would point out which teachers are not doing very well and the school districts can try
and find out why that teachers students didnt do well and help them get better. (Will)
Those may be a few benefits to voting yes to amending the Constitution but overall, the
amendment should not be passed. Superintendent Bill Nicely of the Kearney Board thinks The
language of the amendment does not belong in the Missouri Constitution. We would have to
assess every teacher, regardless of what grade theyre in, regardless of the subject they taught
art teachers, physical education teachers, chemistry teachers, physics teachers, he said.
How does that make any sense? Number 1, who has the time? And Number 2, who could ever
afford it? From a merely practical standpoint, this is terrible legislation. (Dittmer) While this
being very costly and time effective, it also takes away creativity and local accountability in the
classroom. Teachers are going to only focus on the students doing well on the tests and not
teach them how to do well with other things students are supposed to learn in school. Some
kids naturally do not do well with tests and thats okay. They can still succeed in life without
ever having to get an A on a test. Also its not fair to teachers who might be a good teacher but
their students are not willing to learn and that reflects poorly on them when another teacher
might have all geniuses as students and might not even be that good of a teacher. The cons for
amending the Constitution outweigh the pros of it which is why it should not get passed.

Why fix what isnt broken? Tenure is a solid idea that school districts use and it should
not be changed. There may be a few things that people dont like about it. For example, once
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teachers receive their tenure they may lose motivation to being the best because they know its
nearly impossible for them to get fired. It can take away their incentives to want to improve
their teaching habits. There are exceptions that allow teachers to get fired so they can still get
rid of them if needed. According to the Missouri State Teachers Association teachers can be
fired if the teacher has a physical or mental condition that renders him or her unfit to instruct
or associate with children, for immoral conduct, for incompetence, inefficiency or
insubordination in the line of duty, for willful or persistent violation of Missouri's school laws or
the local school district's published policies or regulations, for excessive or unreasonable
absences, and for conviction of a felony or a crime of moral turpitude on probation for five
years (Campbell). Even though it is a long and difficult process to fire a teacher it is still
possible so people cannot use that as an excuse to go against it.

As stated earlier, tenure secures teachers jobs by protecting them from being fired for
non-related work, personal, and political reasons. According to an article Work in America
Before tenure, teachers could be dismissed when a new political party took power or a
principal wanted to make room to hire his friends. Women were dismissed for getting married,
becoming pregnant, wearing pants, or being out too late in the evenings (Carl). This is not fair
to teachers or anyone of a job for that matter. Teachers are the ones who make our country
what it is. They are helping create the future leaders of America. Most students do not go
through school without being impacted by at least one teacher they had. Teachers are asked to
do a lot of things that people dont do in their regular lives. They have to parent, they have to
advocate, buy their own supplies. Try to find a teacher who hasn't bought clothes or toiletries
for their students. It's very common (Campbell). Teachers do more than what they are
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credited for and that is why when they earn their tenure, they deserve it. There is no need to
get rid of tenure when it is doing so well. It is completely unnecessary and that is why the
Missouri Constitution amendment three regarding teacher contracts and performance
evaluation systems should not be passed.

Monica Irwin

Bibliography
"2014 Ballot Measures." SOS, Missouri. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
Campbell, Ruth. "Front and Center: Amendment 3 Pushes Teacher Tenure into the
Spotlight." Southeast Missourian. N.p., 12 Aug. 2014. Web.
Carl E. Van Horn, Herbert A. Schaffner, Work in America: An Encyclopedia of History, Policy, and
Society, 2003
Dittmer, Ryne "School Board Takes Stance against Amendment 3." Kearney Courier. N.p., n.d.
Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Wickham, Fred "Know Your Rights Part 1: State's Teacher Tenure Law." AFT Missouri, AFL-CIO.
N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
Will, Madeline. "Teacher Tenure, Evaluation Will Appear on Missouri Ballots in
November. Education Week. Editorial Projects in Education, 6 Aug. 2014. Web. 25
Sept. 2014.