HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday upheld his promise to veto a bill that would lessen the role of seniority in teacher layoffs.
The Protecting Excellent Teachers Act, passed this month by the House and Senate, had become a political football in Harrisburg. Earlier this week, a key Republican in the Legislature warned the governor the issue could resurface in next month’s budget negotiations if he vetoed the bill.
Supporters, including the state school boards association, said the measure would allow districts to protect its best teachers by using performance ratings, not seniority, in determining staff furloughs. The bill also for the first time would let districts implement layoffs for economic reasons.
But opponents, including the state’s largest public teacher union, said the evaluation systems were too new and unproven to be reliable measures.
Mr. Wolf has said the state should spend its time investing in improving teachers and performance standards, not paving the way for layoffs. In his veto message, he noted the evaluation system was designed to identify teachers weaknesses and then provide them with the opportunity to improve.
“Teachers who do not improve after being given the opportunity and tools to do so are the ones who should no longer be in the classroom,” he said. “This is the system we should be using to remove ineffective teachers.”
Representatives for Republican leaders asserted that the governor is resisting reform at the same time he wants more funding for education.
“The governor needs to remember he’s asking for hundreds of millions of new taxpayer dollars to go to our schools,” said Steve Miskin, spokesman for House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana. “It’s not going to happen without accountability.”
The prime sponsor of the bill, Rep. Stephen Bloom, R-Cumberland, said he was disappointed with the governor’s action.
“I question whether the governor even took the time to read the legislation before making the hasty decision to rob our kids of the guarantee that they will get to keep their best teachers,” Mr. Bloom said in a statement.
State Republican Party spokeswoman Megan Sweeney accused Mr. Wolf of bowing “to liberal special interests at the cost of kids and their parents.”
But the head of the teachers union praised the veto.
“Experience matters in public education,” Pennsylvania State Education Association president Jerry Oleksiak said in a statement. “With Gov. Wolf’s veto, lawmakers can get back to work on what Pennsylvanians really want — funding our schools and supporting what really helps kids learn.”
Karen Langley: klangley@post-gazette.com, 717-787-2141 and @karen_langley
First Published: May 18, 2016, 9:37 p.m.
Updated: May 18, 2016, 10:08 p.m.
