Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for June 27, 2006 CHEAPER TO KEEP HER...HIM...WHATEVER!

Below is a message from our anti-union "friends" at Education Communique...

Almost $220,000 to Fire a Tenured Teacher in Illinois.

As a follow-up to his series on The Hidden Cost of Tenure for Small Newspaper Group, Scott Reeder addressed some criticism his reports received from Illinois teachers' unions.

"In the original series, which was published in December," Reeder wrote, "the newspapers said school districts reasonably could expect to spend at least $100,000 to try to fire a tenured teacher.

"That figure, which was based on attorney estimates, was immediately called into question by one of the state's two major teacher unions, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which contends such cases usually cost school districts less than $50,000.

"To settle the question, Small Newspaper Group filed Freedom of Information Act requests for every attorney bill paid by a school district in a tenured teacher dismissal case during the last five years.

"Those bills indicate school districts have spent an average of $219,504.21 in legal fees for dismissal cases and related litigation from the beginning of 2001 until the end of 2005.

"As staggering as that number is, it actually understates the ultimate cost of these lawsuits because 44 percent of these cases are still on appeal and the lawyer bills continue to grow."

Reeder's latest report is currently only available to subscribers of Quad-Cities Online.