School      

          Work sucks                                          Liberté, égalité, ancienneté

Why have an innovative school when you can have one shackled by a union contract instead? In the Columbus (Ohio) school district, a French-immersion school is about to get less immersive, thanks to union-enforced transfer rules that are forcing unqualified teachers on the school. As The Columbus Dispatch puts it, “parents are justifiably upset by the news that four teachers assigned to the school for the coming academic year don’t speak French.” Unfortunately for the students, “the teachers’ contract requires that any vacancies be offered first to teachers who were laid off,” even if they’re not qualified to provide an immersive language experience.

 Translation: c’est la vie.

  August 27th, 2007 Jon Berry