LETTERS

School Administrator, Dec, 1995

Private Providers

SENN BROWN

Director of Legislative Services, Wisconsin Association of School Boards, Madison, Wisconsin

* Compliments on your extensive reporting in August on schools contracting with private providers to enhance classroom instruction and student achievement.

The articles on contracting and charter schools should be helpful to school officials who wish to explore the feasibility of these delivery system options.

Your readers might like to know about a new guide for contracting with private providers for educational service--the result of a recent initiative by AASA and the National School Boards Association.

One barrier to contracting has been the unclear legal authority of districts to purchase educational services from private providers. In many states, the legal authority of school districts has been limited by an historic "enumerated powers" doctrine. With the enactment this past summer of "broad powers" legislation for boards in Wisconsin, we believe schools now have the legal authority to contract.

A Closed Market

CHRIS YELICH

Executive Director, American Association of Educators in Private Practice, Watertown, Wisconsin

* Your August issue, especially the article dealing with contracting for educational services by John McLaughlin, really gets to the heart of the mission of the American Association of Educators in Private Practice.

Education is the only profession that does not offer a private practice option--teachers cannot "hang out a shingle" as can people in every other walk of life. In five years, AAEPP's membership has exceeded 400 members, consisting of teachers who are in business for themselves. Even though these professionals bring with them the ultimate accountability--their contracts can be terminated easily if the school is not satisfied with their services--the school market has not been open to them.

As a high school chemistry teacher and former board member of a 600-student school district, I have come to know schools from the classroom to the board room. Staffing has become extremely difficult as students become more sophisticated in their requests for subjects like Japanese or Internet skills, especially since the need is for only one or two sections. Private practitioners can fill this need, bringing flexibility to the system.

Astute Distinctions

CHRIS WHITTLE

General Partner, The Edison Project, Knoxville, Tennessee

* I believe John McLaughlin's voice is one of the most reasoned and informed on the issue of the private sector's involvement in public schools. He contributed a superb piece ("Public Education and Private Enterprise: Where's This New Relationship Going?") to your August issue.

McLaughlin's sidebar that discusses how superintendents should respond to the private sector was particularly good. His suggestions on how to differentiate what our company and others are doing from privatization per se was very astute.

Incompetent Teachers

JANET CLAYMORE-ROSS

Curriculum Director, Flandreau Public Schools, Flandreau, South Dakota

* Michael E. Ward's article in your May issue ("Teacher Dismissal: The Impact of Tenure, Administrator Competence and Other Factors") piqued an interset in teacher dismissals.

I have observed the difficulty administrators seem to have in dismissing tenured teachers. Ward's explanation of four influential variables put into perspective for administrators the factors that could hinder tenured teacher removal.

His finding that only one of every 27 incompetent teachers is removed alarmed me. I wonder whether this is true in other states. I was encouraged to read that a low proportion of those teachers involuntarily dismissed were rehired unless their area of expertise was in high demand.

I found myself nodding in agreement with Ward's suggestions for administrators. He has helped us understand that tenured teacher dismissal is not an impossible task done helter-skelter but rather a science of expertise honed to give consistent results.