Legislation that removed the state’s due process protection for K-12 teachers has opened a whole new area for negotiations between local school districts in Kansas and the teachers who work for them.

In support of the measure, the governor and state legislators said it would return the issue of tenure for K-12 teachers to the local level, which can be viewed in either a positive or negative light. Local districts have more control over their tenure policies, but that also means there may be little consistency from one district to the next. Teachers in one district may have far different due process protections than teachers in a neighboring district, which could create a new area of competition among districts seeking to retain and attract top teachers.

Up until now, salary and benefits, such as health insurance, have been the key negotiating points for teacher representatives. Now, teachers also are concerned about what due process protections will be included in their contracts.

This is not a minor concern, as illustrated this week in early negotiations between the Lawrence school district and its teachers. The district offered about $1 million in new funding for teacher compensation which would fully fund the “step increases” that are tied to additional college degrees and years of experience as well as the additional cost of employee health insurance. That’s a pretty favorable financial starting point for teacher contract negotiations.

However, the district’s proposal also includes a plan that falls short of local teachers’ goal of preserving the due process rights they had under state law. The district is offering to preserve due process but wants appeals to a firing or contract non-renewal to be taken to the school board, rather than to an independent hearing officer, as was the case under state law. That is a significant difference. School officials say the school board should hold the decision-making power, but teachers aptly point out that the board is less impartial than an independent hearing officer and probably more likely to support district administrators over an individual teacher.

Tenure often is seen as protecting substandard teachers from dismissal, but it also protects good teachers from capricious dismissal based on something other than their teaching performance. It’s difficult to know exactly how the state’s due process action will play out across Kansas. However, depending on how individual school districts alter and enforce due process protections for their teachers, it’s possible those provisions could become a significant factor in where teachers choose to pursue their careers.