Teacher tenure at issue with Prop. 74

"No other profession gets put on permanent status after just two years," said Daniel Ng, spokesman for the California recovery team, one of the governor's political organizations. "They're just aligning teachers with what other professions do."

Opponents of the measure are concerned it would discourage people from entering teaching, said Suzanne Radotic, an untenured Spanish teacher at Hillsdale High School.

"You're taking out the security and the motivation," Radotic said. "If I had gone into teaching and found out that I wouldn't get tenure for five years ... I wouldn't have done it."

No on 74, a coalition of teachers and school board members which opposes the measure, could not be reached after repeated calls.

Radotic said that if Proposition 74 passed it would be a detriment to the teaching ability of educators.

"To not be tenured can affect your teaching," Radotic said. "It makes you more inhibited, it makes you feel like you're not a part of the district yet."

Ng said California does value its teachers because the average Californian teacher makes $58,000 a year, more than 25 percent more than the national average of $46,000 a year for a teacher, while the cost of living in California is 6 percent more than the national average.

"Here 80 percent of our teachers have masters, so here to deny us tenure ... is ridiculous," Radotic said.

Radotic said she is most concerned about struggling districts where there would be greater teacher turnover if Proposition 74 passed. In those districts, there would be a greater demand for teachers than ever which would mean more teachers would be given emergency credentials.

The proposition also aims to modify the dismissal process for tenured teachers if they have received two consecutive unsatisfactory evaluations. Most tenured teachers are evaluated every two years unless they receive an unsatisfactory evaluation. When a tenured teacher receives an unsatisfactory evaluation he or she will be evaluated annually until they either earn a satisfactory evaluation or they are dismissed. A tenured teacher is given a 90-day period to improve performance before dismissal.

Should the measure pass, a tenured teacher who has received two consecutive unsatisfactory evaluations would not need to be given documentation of their unsatisfactory performance and would not be guaranteed a 90-day period to allow them to improve his or her performance.

"There are a lot of unqualified teachers out there," Radotic said. "I've seen it take a long time for a serious complaint to be filed ... I could see that being reasonable."

If Proposition 74 fails, the current tenure and dismissal process will remain in place.

"Do you wanna embrace the status quo?" Ng said. "The ultimate goal is to make sure that kids learn."

Radotic said she believes most education problems should be solved locally instead of on the state level.

"As a teacher I don't look at the governor to solve my problems, I look to the (school) administration," Radotic said. "It's gotta get stomped."