Ft. Myers, FLORIDA

Don't they even read their own newspaper?

August 21, 2007 - Editorial from The News-Press (Fort Myers, FL) "Teachers need full liability coverage Sub: The Legislature should not have ended the state educators liability program without a replacement"

Schoolteacher misconduct with students is very rare, but good teachers live every day with the threat of specious charges, complaints and lawsuits.Teachers and administrators need comprehensive liability insurance, and the state should make it available if necessary.

That's a fair part of the deal with the people to whom we entrust our children's education and safety.

The Legislature is under heavy pressure to cut spending, but lawmakers were wrong to eliminate the state Educators Professional Liability Insurance Program, which protects teachers if they lose a lawsuit or have to pay a large settlement.

At the same time, they note that state law limits the liability of public employees and otherwise restricts claims, and teachers and administrators have liability insurance options through their union or the Professional Educators Network of Florida. The school district also carries insurance.

Their contempt seems to be reserved mostly for the victims.

MALICIOUS COMPLAINTS
We live in a litigious society, with too many antagonistic parents and too many disrespectful children capable of malicious lies or overreactions.

Martha Simmons, a kindergarten tutor at Ray V. Pottorf Elementary, said, "There are too many people who don't respect the teacher, and children tend to make up stories when they get angry."

Maybe the Educators Professional Liability Insurance Program needed fixing, but teachers deserve full protection.

The program should not have been abandoned without first making sure comprehensive coverage was readily available to teachers and administrators. Urge lawmakers to repair or replace this program to ensure teachers aren't left exposed.

TT - What they really want is coverage paid for taxpayers. However, teachers can pay as little as $150 a year for $2 million liability coverage, according to another article in the same paper, on the same date on the cancellation of the state-funded insurance program.

The state paid $4,382,538 for premiums that only paid out $50,375 in claims. (See the chart.) This was due primarily to laws protecting state employees and laws that limit claims.

As for their claim that the complaints against teachers are malicious, they have not undertaken, nor can they cite, any study of criminal complaints against teachers that concludes that most, many, or a large percentage of complaints are false charges. In tracking cases in Florida, we find no evidence of it either. If the sloppy editorial writers at the paper had evidence of a widespread pattern of false charges, they would be better off publishing a series that documents cases to support their claims. They can't. If such a study existed, the NEA would flog it to every paper in the country.

It's just easier to take the union position.