• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Education / Keeping “bad teachers” from getting jobs elsewhere

Keeping “bad teachers” from getting jobs elsewhere

March 7, 2012 By O. Kay Henderson

Local school district officials would be required to let the state Board of Educational Examiners know when a teacher or administrator is dismissed for “serious misconduct.”

Representative Kevin Koester, a Republican from Ankeny, says legislators learned many schools merely fire a teacher for improper behavior, like “sexting” a student, but don’t pass the information to state officials who have the authority to yank that educator’s license.

“We should be concerned about all students everywhere,” Koester says, “and so this, for serious misconduct, would prevent that person from having a license and then being employed in another district.”

If the bill becomes law, school districts will be required to tell the Board of Educational Examiners when a teacher or administrator falsifies grades, takes school property for personal use or in some way “solicits or consummates” an inappropriate relationship with a student.

“When there are a couple of thousand texts between a teacher and a student, that’s an indicator,” Koester says.

Koester and other lawmakers heard from ex-school board members who were upset to learn a teacher they’d fired for serious misconduct wound up being hired by another district.

“I’m appalled by that,” Koester says. “We care more about all students, so this bill is helpful.”

Another lawmaker used the phrase “pass the trash” to describe school districts that fail to report misconduct to the state board that can yank a teacher’s license — to ensure that teacher or administrator cannot get a job at another school.

The bill passed the House on a 96-0 vote. It now goes to the senate for consideration.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Education, News, Politics / Govt Tagged With: Democratic Party, Employment and Labor, Republican Party

Featured Stories

Exhibit features lesser known works of Grant Wood

Testing finds 21 new CWD cases in deer

It may become a crime in Iowa to use fake urine in workplace drug tests

February trending 18 degrees below average temperature

Iowa House Education Committee votes to end tenure at UI, ISU, UNI

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Iowa State looks to avoid winless Big-12 season

New look and new format at girls’ state basketball

Youngstown State takes action against assistant football coach

Iowa’s Jack Nunge lost for the season

Key stretch begins for #9 Iowa

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2021 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC