This story indicates one of the major problems with public education. A teacher lost her job when kids discovered a porn flick she’d starred in, and now it looks like she could get her gig back.From the story:

“School officials immediately suspended Dye, banned her from school property, and as a non-tenured teacher, told her soon after that her contract would not be renewed. She didn’t receive a public hearing on her dismissal because she got paid for the duration of her contract.

“Dye’s attorney, Mark Blankenship, argues that the school district didn’t give her a fair shot, and that’s one of the reasons he encouraged her to re-apply to get her teaching position back

….

“Nancy Waldrop, assistant superintendent for the school district, told the Associated Press that Dye’s history will have no bearing on whether she is re-hired, but she has concerns that the students may be distracted by the adult-film discovery if she were to return.”

First of all, if the teacher’s history got her fired (ahem, not renewed), how could it have no bearing on whether she’s re-hired? That’s like if worked at Wal-Mart, stole, got fired, re-applied and got mad they took into account I stole. And they agreed!

It’s also amusing the teacher’s lawyer is calling it “speculation” that knowledge of the porn tape could once again cause a disruption. It’s like he’s never been in a high school before.

The bottom line is that, in most jobs, hiring is a process of discrimination. Managers discriminate in favor of the people most likely to achieve the goals of the company — regardless of why the applicants are able to do that. On some level it’s unfair she’s having trouble turning her life around, but high school teaching demands a person students haven’t seen in a porno. In hiring, results should come first, especially for such an important job.

In the private sector, this is only a problem if you discriminate against protected groups. For example, even though IQ tests predict job performance, the Supreme Court ruled they couldn’t be used in hiring because of their disparate racial impact. But “porn star” is most definitely not a protected class under discrimination law. If only the school would stick to its guns and say, “When we let people go for cause, we don’t hire them back.”

For a more dramatic example of this-teacher-just-won’t-go-away, check out this flow chart on how to fire a teacher in New York.

On an unrelated note, I totally can’t get the Van Halen video for “Hot for Teacher” out of my head right now.

Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://www.therationale.com and http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.