When Peabody School Committee met last week to consider merging programs from Peabody's vocational school into the expanded North Shore Regional Technical School District, one of the most pressing concerns seemed to be whether all teachers in the Peabody program would be guaranteed jobs at the new school.
That speaks volumes about the new North Shore Tech district as a potential bureaucracy — one already raising cost and efficiency concerns in Gloucester and elsewhere. But it also shows the skewed priorities of too many school officials when it comes to addressing schools' performance.
Indeed, children and their parents would be better served if, instead of protecting jobs, those in charge in Peabody and elsewhere were asking whether teachers are qualified to hold their present positions, and whether children were getting the kind of education they deserve and need.
Those latter questions are at the heart of school reform legislation now being considered on Beacon Hill. The bill, endorsed by the Joint Committee on Education, builds on initiatives put forward by Gov. Deval Patrick and the group Race to the Top Coalition. It would encourage the establishment of more charter and "innovation" schools statewide and, among other things, allow the state — with or without local cooperation — to rip up union contracts and take over the 100 or so worst-performing schools in Massachusetts.
The carrot is an estimated $400 million in federal "Race to the Top" grants — money the Obama administration has earmarked for programs in those states willing to abandon the status quo and try new approaches to improving student performance.
Not all the reforms — pay based on performance, for instance — are likely to make it past the House and Senate in the face of vigorous opposition on the part of the state's teachers' unions. We know how that works. But the bill now before the Legislature would allow parents more choices in deciding where to send their children and require the worst-performing schools to immediately reform themselves — or have someone else do it for them.
That may sound like a hard line. But when it comes to educational priorities, here's the bottom line: neither legislative inertia nor union contracts can be allowed to thwart what is in the best interest of those attending our public schools.
Let's hope Cape Ann's three state lawmakers — Sen. Bruce Tarr and Reps. Ann-Margaret Ferrante and Brad Hill — get behind this latest reform effort.
