Under an unusual new “warranty” program, the University of Hawaii at Manoa has promised to provide free remedial help to graduates of its college of education who do poorly in the statewide evaluation program for new teachers.
The policy adopted by the university’s board of regents late last month would enable the teachers to remedy their weaknesses by auditing courses or consulting with professors in the education program.
The warranty was designed to “build and retain confidence in the quality of our graduates,” said Melisa Choroszy, assis6tant dean of the college of education. Similar programs have been initiated at a small but growing number of education schools across the nation in the last few years.
Ms. Choroszy predicted that only a handful of the 450 students who graduate from the university each year with bachelor’s degrees or professional diplomas in education would need the remedial help.
The South Carolina Education Association has asked a federal district court to strike down a 1981 state law that prevents teachers from having their union-membership dues automatically deducted from their paychecks.
In papers filed with the court last month, the scea charges that the ban violates members’ rights under the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The measure, which was passed after the scea joined the National Education Association, forbids state employees from deducting dues for any organization affiliated with a national labor union. In 1985, lawmakers amended the law to permit another state-employee group’s members to deduct their dues.
The teachers’ union charges that the law’s disparate treatment of the two groups violates the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection clause. It also charges that the law violates scea members’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association.
