Recently I received a flier that declared Utah teachers would soon be forced to go through the "recertification" process again. Unless such a plan is also in the works for all administrators, counselors, secretaries, janitors, professors, deans, principals, doctors, lawyers, bureaucrats, truck drivers, welders, policemen, firemen and every other type of employee on the public payroll in any way, shape or form, then this is nothing less than a program designed to discriminate against public school teachers based on prejudice.
Demanding recertification for no other reason than public relations is to suggest that teachers are guilty of something and must prove themselves innocent at their own expense. Since when does time on the job not count toward expertise in any field, whether it be that of a mechanic or a rocket scientist? When companies require retraining of their personnel because of changes in equipment or ideas, who pays the bill -- the employees? Only if that employee is a public school teacher.Recertification has never been proved as a means of improving teachers. Show me the data. There is none. If there are bad teachers, then they should be singled out, placed on probation and retained or fired based on improvement or the lack thereof in their performance; but this "Flock Shot" assumption that all teachers are a lower class of bad or stupid people is sickening. It is based only on public prejudice fueled by a few who hate public education, and it should be stopped. We teachers are professionals who are proud of what we accomplish despite the low pay and the hateful bias often shown to us by the media, government and public. We deserve some respect.
The UEA and FTA should look jointly into a class-action lawsuit against the passage of such a law based on the denial of teachers equal rights and protection under the law and Constitution. The state should not be able to single us out as a particular group to be hatefully penalized simply because of our type of employment.
Raymond Scott Ormond
Teacher, Pleasant Grove High School
American Fork