Bloom Renews Effort to Protect Excellent Teachers
HARRISBURG – Rep. Stephen Bloom (R-Cumberland) today reintroduced legislation to help keep Pennsylvania’s best teachers in the classrooms and boost student achievement by ending the mandated practice of seniority-based layoffs in Pennsylvania.
“An excellent teacher can have a lifelong impact on a child, cultivating a love of learning and motivation to achieve higher goals,” Bloom said. “Unfortunately, because of unfair state rules, we often force out the best educators simply because they have fewer years of seniority.”
Known as the Protecting Excellent Teachers Act, Bloom’s legislation would instead require teacher performance to guide furlough and reinstatement decisions.
Teacher performance ratings are already assigned under the statewide educator evaluation system adopted in 2012. Observed educators earn a rating of distinguished, proficient, needs improvement or failing.
“While seniority-based dismissal decisions are sometimes touted as fair, in reality they ignore differences in teacher quality and disrupt more classrooms than performance-based layoffs,” Bloom said. “And under the existing laws, whole programs must often be eliminated, like art, music or foreign languages, rather than simply laying off the most chronically underperforming teachers.”
The Protecting Excellent Teachers Act was approved by the House and Senate last year, but was vetoed by Gov. Tom Wolf.
“Sadly, the governor’s veto preserved the bad laws that too often force our best educators out of our kids’ classrooms,” Bloom said. “I am hopeful he will reconsider and decide to side with Pennsylvania students.”
Pennsylvania remains one of only six states that mandates seniority be the sole factor in determining layoffs.
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Representative Stephen Bloom
199th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Abbey Haslam
717.260.6222
ahaslam@pahousegop.com
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