Yet another high school has handed its entire staff pink slips—this time in Savannah, Ga. Savannah is over 800 miles away from the most recent firing of an entire high school faculty in Central Falls, R.I. However, though the location may be different, the underlining story is similar. Two hundred employees at Beach High School, including the principal, have been ordered not to return to work after this school year ends. All recently fired employees can reapply for their jobs, but under federal education law only 50 percent can be re-hired.
 Beach students win service award, Savannah, Ga, 2010. |
According to the state, the reasoning behind the most recent mass firing is that Beach High School has been on a state list of “under-performing” schools due to failing test scores and low graduation rates since 2003. The mass firing tactic is used at as many as 20 to 30 schools a year and is on the increase.
Beach High School has a long history of educational excellence, starting from its founding in 1867 as the Beach Institute to educate freed slaves. Since then, this predominantly Black school has continued to educate generations of students. What is never mentioned in media coverage about “failing schools” is that standardized test scores correlate to students’ family income levels, rather than to teacher quality.
The truth is, the faculty at Beach High School had been working diligently to make changes to further support their students. Since Dr. Deonn Stone took over as principal, the graduation rate has gone from 49 percent in 2007 to 66 percent in 2009. As if this accomplishment was not enough, participation in college-level advanced placement exams skyrocketed from 9 percent to 23 percent. These are clear-cut indications that Beach High School was in fact improving, but not fast enough under the arbitrary regulations stipulated under federal law.
The Beach faculty has no collective bargaining rights—in other words, no teachers’ union. When the district moved to fire the teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island, the union was able to launch a struggle that drew national attention. At present, a mediator is involved in the Central Falls case to see if a different “turn-around” model can be used that avoids the mass firing. Without a teachers’ union, there is no one to stand up for the rights of the Beach faculty and students.
Tactics such as firing the entire faculty ends up hurting the students the most. Jeff Hubbard, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, stated, “We’re very concerned about how they will be able to get a full staff there. They’re basically starting that school over.”
The school will have a “fresh start,” but it will be on the backs of the fired teachers and abandoned students. The students at Beach High deserve better! They deserve an opportunity and the right to an equal education, but this will not be achieved by firing all of their hard-working teachers. Enough is enough! End mass firings! Education is a right!
