ABC 7/KGO TV, September 27, 2005

By Lyanne Melendez - Video link on KGO TV page

California could become only the second state in the nation with a five-year tenure law for public school teachers. Missouri is the other state. Voters will decide in November whether to change the law from the current two years to five. The governor is a strong supporter of the change, and that has enraged most teachers who say Prop 74 does more harm than good.

Most teachers at Charlotte Wood Middle School in Danville have been on the job for more than two years. This means they're past their probationary period. But Governor Schwarzenegger wants that kind of job security to come after five years of teaching.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, (R) California: "What we are interested in is to bring more accountability, less bureaucracy, and more money into the classroom."

How did Lydia Schneider, a teacher in the San Ramon Valley School District, feel when she heard about Prop 74?

Lydia Schneider, teacher, San Ramon Valley School District: "Insulted, angry and undervalued."

The California Teachers Association has a heated campaign to defeat Prop 74 because, they claim, it would create teacher shortages.

Marcie Launey, teacher's union: "Probationary is still, to them, it's temporary. It's not permanent. They have no job security, and they said, 'If I had known this from the beginning, I would have never started down this road."

The union also argues during the first two years, new teachers are watched very closely. One example: schools in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District have a special government-sponsored program that matches experienced teachers with new ones for two years.

Marcie Launey, teacher's union: "And at the end of those two years, it's up to the district to recommend that teacher for a clear credential. My question is: do we need three additional years to figure out if that teacher is that qualified, and do we want to have that teacher to be in the classroom for three additional years?"

Jeff Hunter thinks so. He teaches in San Francisco.

Jeff Hunter, San Francisco teacher: "It's really difficult for an administrator to get, especially if you have 20 teachers or more, to get a good grasp of what every single teacher is doing - especially those just coming in new."

As it stands, permanent teachers can only be dismissed after voluntarily going through what is called "due process." It's very expensive, and could take years to remove a teacher.

Marcie Launey, teacher's union: "Democracy is expensive. Being able to guarantee civil rights is expensive. There is a process that has to be followed to ensure that people are not being treated poorly or badly."

The Pacific Research Institute in Sacramento has studied the issue of teacher tenure. That organization found many school districts can't afford the legal fees to get rid of the bad teachers once they have tenure.

Lance Izumi, Pacific Research Institute: "What often happens is that teacher is kicked around, passed around from school to school, and often end up in poor income schools where the parents don't complain as much."

The institute also found from 1990 to 1999, the L.A. Unified School District fired only one teacher. Prop 74 would also make it somewhat easier to dismiss teachers.

Missouri is the only state where teachers wait five years before getting any job security. So what impact does longer tenure have on public school students in Missouri? We took a look at the results of one national test, the NAEP. In each category - math, science, reading and writing - Missouri students did better than kids in California.

But there are a few things we have to taken into account. Class size in one. The student/teacher ratio is 13-to-1 in Missouri, better than California's 20-to-1. And California has a much higher number of minority students than Missouri.

Eric Mar, San Francisco Unified School District: "We have tremendous numbers of immigrants not just from Mexico, but Central America, Asia, and the Caribbean now. So many kids who are English learners are thrown into this one-size fits all system."

A Stanford study showed there is no evidence that longer teacher tenure improves a student's performance.

Whatever the outcome of Prop 74, there will continue to be friction between the governor and the teacher's union.

Copyright 2005, ABC7/KGO-TV/DT.