WEA MAY CUT SUPPORT FOR `BAD TEACHERS' UNION CONSIDERS NOT GIVING

The Washington Education Association may change the way it deals with teachers who are chronically inept, a union spokeswoman said Friday.

The WEA is considering whether to change its policy of having union locals provide staff and legal support to teachers who come under repeated criticism from administrators, parents or students.

While the union is committed to retaining hard-fought due process rights, it is also sensitive to accusations that it protects bad teachers, spokeswoman Teresa Moore said.

"Our own members have said it casts a bad light on the entire profession when a few individuals are defended time and time again," Moore said at the union's annual meeting.

Teachers who can't or won't improve may find they do not have WEA support, she said.

But many union members remember the days when they could be fired or reassigned at the whim of a principal, and do not want to weaken their protections, Moore said.

A survey conducted for the WEA in January found that Washington residents had improved feelings of satisfaction about public schools. Such support is key to defeating this fall's ballot initiatives designed to make it easier to create private schools, the survey said.

In other issues, the union will send a sample ballot to all 65,000 of its members and use their responses to decide which candidates to support in the 1996 elections, Moore said.

Numerous candidates are courting the union's support, plus the campaign contributions from its political arm. The WEA gave $200,000 to candidates in 1992, mostly to Democrats. The WEA political action committee had $324,000 in the bank at the end of 1995.

The voters guide included statements from all of the candidates for governor except Republicans Dale Foreman and Pam Roach, who did not respond.

All of the candidates for superintendent of public instruction provided statements except school voucher supporter Ron Taber. Taber has said the WEA is so against private school vouchers that he does not want to waste his time seeking its endorsement.

One issue the union doesn't need feedback from members on is the two initiatives that would support giving tax money to parents to send their children to private schools, and make it easier to establish private schools.

The WEA opposes both Initiative 173 and Initiative 177, both on the November ballot.

"We are opposed to taking public money and giving it to private schools," Moore said.

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