The Connecticut House of Representatives passed a priority bill for educators yesterday that ensures fairness in teacher terminations as well as addressing other workforce needs in the state. The bill passed 117 – 29 with bipartisan support and is now on to the Senate.
CEA President Kate Dias thanked representatives who have championed this bill and helped it pass in the House and urged senators to follow suit. [Pictured at right are some of the representatives who supported the bill along with CEA staff and other advocates.]
“We are so grateful to the House that they passed this bill, including the section that allows for our fair termination,” she said. “It gives us the opportunity to challenge a termination in a way that is fair and reasonable. Teachers now need to contact their Senators and ask them to pass House Bill 5003.”
Tell Your Senator to Pass HB 5003
Dias said that other public employees, including police and firefighters, have long appreciated the fact that, if they face a termination, it goes to a neutral arbitrator who issues a binding decision.
“This is about fairness. If professions that are male dominated have this right, how come we don’t as a female-dominated profession?” she asked.
In an interview today on WICC’s Melissa in the Morning Dias explained why House Bill 5003, An Act Concerning Workforce Development and Working Conditions in the State, is so important to educators and how, if the bill passes the Senate and becomes law, teacher terminations would be handled going forward.
“Both sides get to lay their case out, both the employee and the district, and then a neutral party decides what’s a fair outcome. In teaching, we have been able to fight a termination, but the decision by the arbitrator hasn’t been binding. The arbitrator has been able to decide in favor of a teacher, and the board of education could still decide to move forward with termination,” Dias said.
She added, “This bill doesn’t change the fact that sometimes there are terminations that are just and fair and they stand. What it does is allow us to provide challenges in cases where the termination may not be fair.”
Dias thanked the many teachers who spoke out on the need for a fair termination process and convinced legislators that this was an issue they needed to prioritize.
“Our teachers have done a great job of articulating why this issue is important to them,” she said. “I was backed up by thousands of members who shared their stories and their concerns and took to writing letters and emails, making phone calls, showing up at the Capitol, and helping people understand that this matters, not just with regard to our termination, but in giving us the freedom to be the full advocates for our profession that we want to be.”
She encouraged members to continue those conversations and correspondence with legislators.
“We got this bill through the House, but it still needs to pass the Senate, so now is not the time to give up our efforts,” she told her colleagues. “There’s only a week left in the legislative session, so contact your Senator today and let them know why it’s so important that they pass HB 5003.”
