The cost to fire an ineffective teacher in education is great, in more ways than one. Districts have to spend tens of thousands of dollars in severance pay and legal proceedings just to remove the teacher. Students suffer as the longer that teacher is still teaching, the farther behind they get. The article that I just came across spells this out. A Cedar Springs teacher received a $40,000 settlement to resign. When you look at his personnel file, it's amazing he got one penny for it. (Read the Article). The teacher showed up at a DARE concert smelling strongly of alcohol, allowed students to access his computer by giving them his password, walked through the halls barefoot, leaving no lesson plans for a long term sub, missing required PD, and sending email messages full of sexual innuendo. His previous evaluations showed his poor classroom management skills, failure to communicate with parents, failure to work well with colleagues, and missing paperwork deadlines. This teacher only worked 3 months last year, was granted paid leave the rest of the year, and then a $40,000 settlement to resign. This case illustrates how difficult it is to fire an ineffective teacher, and the burden that is placed on all when that occurs.
To follow up, the Grand Rapids Press reported from 2004-2008, 29 teachers were fired in their area, resulting in payments of $760,000 in salaries and benefits to remove the teachers. An incredible amount.
It is very sad just how little we can do when there is an ineffective teacher. It is very hard on the students and they struggle just to understand and get the work done and fall behind in many cases. However, like you mentioned it costs so much to get rid of that teacher that many districts cannot afford it, therefore the teachers just have long personel files that discuss the poor behavior set forth by that teacher. This is a very sad situation for students and for the school; shouldn't we be able to do something else in situations like these?
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