Assemblymember Joan Buchanan

AB 375, a new bill meant to streamline teacher dismissals, could be headed for quick passage after clearing the State Assembly’s Education Committee with a 7 – 0 vote Thursday.

The bill’s chance at passing is undoubtedly aided by the announcement last week that the state’s largest teachers union, the California Teachers Association, was joining forces with Assemblymember Joan Buchanan and Senator Alex Padilla to support AB 375.

But the alliance of Padilla and Buchanan and the quick pace of action in the statehouse have left some observers confused and concerned. Is AB 375 a watered-down teacher dismissal bill? Or have the unions, legislators, and education advocates finally come to a working compromise that will help streamline the teacher dismissal process?

Edgar Zazueta, the director of government relations for LAUSD, praised AB 375 as a “step in the right direction.”

But he also expressed reservations.

“I think we’d argue that there’s more consideration to be done here. We thank [Buchanan] for moving in the right direction, but we think we could push envelope a little further,” Zazueta said.

LAUSD, StudentsFirst, EdVoice, and Democrats for Education Reform have expressed a mix of praise and concern.

To be sure, the CTA, Padilla, and Buchanan are unlikely allies.

The union vehemently opposed both of Padilla’s teacher dismissal bills (SB 10 and last year’s SB 1530), and when SB 1530 was up for vote in the Assembly last year, Buchanan helped kill the bill when she voted against it. Yet Padilla has shelved SB 10 and teamed up with Buchanan to help pass AB 375.

According to CTA spokesperson Frank Wells, the union supports AB 375 because the bill “does the things we wanted.” He cited how Buchanan’s bill leaves the final dismissal decision in the hands of a Commission on Professional Competence made up of two fellow teachers and an administrative law judge.

In SB 10, Padilla planned to limit the commission to having only an advisory role, instead giving the local school board the final decision on whether to fire a teacher. Padilla also wanted to exclude the teachers from the commission, reducing it to a lone judge. It was this plan to limit the commission to an advisory role that “was a major sticking point” for the CTA with SB 10, Wells said.

Reform-minded Gloria Romero, head of Democrats for Education Reform in California, is skeptical the bill will accomplish much. (Read her critical review of the CTA’s involvement with AB 375 in an O.C. Register column here.)

EdVoice and StudentsFirst praised Buchanan for lifting the statute of limitations on evidence that can be used against a teacher during the dismissal process. (Current law prohibits the use of evidence from more than four years ago.)

However, both groups said they are still reviewing the bill and deciding just what they think.

In a letter sent to Buchanan, EdVoice expressed specific concerns that AB 375 won’t effectively improve the dismissal process for teachers who have sexually or physically abused their students.

EdVoice CEO Bill Lucia told LA School Report that he has several issues with the bill. “There’s no question whatsoever that SB 10 was more streamlined than AB 375 in terms of dealing with people who are child predators on the payroll at taxpayers’ expense,” Lucia said.

Lucia’s main concern clashes directly with the CTA’s praise for AB 375: The bill maintains the current law that gives the Commission on Professional Competence the final dismissal decision for teachers accused of “immoral conduct” such as sexual and physical abuse.

“To maintain the same process for someone who can’t teach and for someone who is a child molester is unacceptable,” Lucia said. “That kind of behavior is criminal, not a matter of professional competence.”

Lucia also takes issue with AB 375’s revised timelines, which have been extended longer in some cases than the timelines SB 10 proposed. While SB 10 would have required hearings to begin 60 days after a teacher asked for it, AB 375 allows the hearing to start within six months; and while SB 10 required that the Commission reviewing the case to choose its three members within seven days, AB 375 extended the time to 45 days.

The CTA’s Frank Wells defended the new timelines: “Padilla’s bill may have had a shorter timeline, but it was less fair. We want to streamline process, but we also want to give people adequate time to prepare their cases.”

Both EdVoice and StudentsFirst say they’re in the process of carefully inspecting AB 375 and meeting with stakeholders, including parents, teachers, and community members, to decide whether or not AB 375 has enough force to merit their support. They expect to decide by the end of the month.

To read the full text of AB 375, go here; for SB 10, go here.

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Now, Padilla plans to join forces with Assemblymember Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo), head of the Assembly’s Education Committee, who introduced her own alternative teacher dismissal bill this week.

Buchanan might seem like an unexpected ally for Padilla, given that Buchanan voted no (along with fellow Democrat Tom Ammiano) on the previous version of Padilla’s bill, SB 1530, which was endorsed by LAUSD and opposed by UTLA.

Buchanan and Padilla say they will work together to pass AB 375, which shares some of SB 10’s key provisions, such as permitting teacher dismissal during the summer and allowing the use of evidence that is older than four years.

In a statement released to LA School Report, Buchanan said she opposed SB 1530 last year because its focus on teachers who abuse students was too limited:

“The dismissal process takes too much time and is too costly for all types of dismissals.  We need a better process that works for everyone – one that is fair, ensures due process, and can be done in a timely and cost-effective manner.”

It remains unclear at this point whether the Buchanan legislation is as rigorous as the Padilla proposal. EdSource has a good analysis of the two bills; read the story here. Or, see the full text of SB 10 here and the draft text of AB 375 here. However, cooperation between Padilla and Buchanan could mean AB 375 has a better chance of passing.

Previous posts:  Richard Bloom Criticizes Betsy Butler For SB 1530 Vote; Where’s UTLA Stand on Teacher Removal?;

Santiago’s appearance with Sanchez was interpreted by some within UTLA to mean that Sanchez carried the Assembly Speaker’s stamp of approval.

“In no uncertain terms, it was made clear to us that Sanchez is protected all the way up and down the power structure of the State,” said a highly placed source within UTLA.

This was one of the reasons that UTLA endorsed Sanchez in the primary — and one of the reasons the union leadership and members may struggle tonight when the House of Representatives reconsiders the union’s District 6 endorsements.

But it is not entirely clear whether pulling Sanchez’s endorsement would have any political consequences, in Sacramento or in Los Angeles — or even how it might affect the runoff.

Eric Bauman, Chair of the LA County Democratic Party, Vice Chair of the State Party and a Senior Advisor to Speaker Perez confirms that Santiago went to the endorsement meeting, but said Santiago’s presence wasn’t a message.

“It does not reflect the Speaker’s position, and the Speaker hasn’t endorsed in that race,” he said. “It’s just coincidental that Tony Sanchez is close friend with the Speaker’s staff.”

But former State Senate Leader Gloria Romero, now director of California Democrats for School Reform, thinks the message was implicit.

“It’s definitely a message that was being sent,” she said in a recent telephone interview with LA School Report. “In the political arena, you know who the Speaker’s staff is. That was message. Cause there’s no reason for Miguel to go with Sanchez to that meeting.”

Indeed, Sanchez has many a Sacramento connection. Not only is he friends with Santiago, but also his brother-in-law is Steve Veres, State Senator Kevin de Leon’s district director.

The speculation has been that the 30-year-old Antonio Sanchez is being groomed for office as a State Assemblyman. (In this scenario, State Senator Alex Padilla would run for Secretary of State, Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra would jump over to the Senate, and Sanchez would run for Bocanegra’s seat.)

Further complicating the situation is that the UTLA leadership genuinely likes Sanchez, a former aide to the Mayor who’s also been endorsed by the LA County Democratic Party, the LA County Federation of Labor, the SEIU and the Coalition for School Reform.

“The book on him is, when he was in the Mayor’s office, he got things done,” said the UTLA source. “He’s been working extremely hard. He’s not just a politician that expects to be coronated.”

They also aren’t opposed to a moderate Board member — a consensus builder, as it were, and might hope to avoid both a costly runoff and any possible consequences in Sacramento.

SB 10, the bill to make it easier to fire teachers accused of harming children, is up for consideration again this year. In one possible scenario, stripping Sanchez of his endorsement would give powerful Sacramento lawmakers an additional reason to move the bill forward.

“The message we’ve gotten, through a back channel, is that if UTLA pulls their endorsement [for Sanchez], get ready, here comes SB 10,” said the UTLA source.

Sanchez supports SB 10. His opponent, Monica Ratliff, opposes it.

The LA County Democratic Party’s Eric Bauman thinks this idea is ludicrous.

“I can tell you that there is nobody I know of in Sacramento that would make that play,” he said. “The speaker is very close to the CTA [California Teachers Association].”

Romero agrees that there’s probably not any direct connection between the Sanchez endorsement and SB 10 — largely because SB 10 is going to pass.

“This time, there’s gonna be a lot more publicity, and a lot more pressure on the Assembly,” she said. “I think that it goes [through] this year in some form.”

In the end, the most immediate reason not to strip Sanchez of his endorsement and focus on Ratliff may be that doing so could set off a competitive runoff and UTLA is said to have little more than $100,000 left in its coffers — which UTLA leadership controls, not the House of Representatives.

Previous posts: District 6 Candidate Hardens Position on Deasy Leadership, Union Schedules Special Session To Reconsider Endorsements*, Union Endorsements Could Affect District 6 Runoff, After Election, Board Status Quo Remains Intact

LA School Report is increasingly being recognized for its coverage of critical Los Angeles education issues. The latest example is the site’s inclusion in the Students Matter newsletter for our story about SB 10, the resurrected version of SB 1530: Teacher Dismissal Bill, Redux.

State Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima)

SB 10, a bill aimed at streamlining the dismissal process for teachers accused of sexual misconducted, was introduced earlier this week and is now out in a full-text version.

A carbon copy of SB 1530 (the previous bill seeking to address this issue) SB 10 is among a handful of proposals sure to garner attention even before the session begins for real in January. As with its predecessor, SB 10 was submitted by Senator Alex Padilla.

Earlier this year, the teachers union seemed initially to be unopposed to SB 1530, which passed easily in the Senate, but then dug in its heels in the Assembly and helped to kill it. This time, lawmakers may think twice about doing the bidding of the teacher lobby.  One legislator who helped defeat the bill, Betsy Butler, was portrayed in a CNN report as having protected pedophile teachers and lost her election in November by a close margin. (See bill here. See CNN report here).

Previous posts: Union Points Fingers on Sex Abuse, Betsy Butler: Teachers Union Help Not Enough?