Administration Wants Districts Free to Transfer Teachers

The Bush administration wants district officials to have the freedom to override collective bargaining contracts while staffing their most troubled schools, but the controversial proposal could face an uphill battle against a Democratic-led Congress and the teachers’ unions.

Department of Education officials say the proposal, part of the administration’s blueprint for the renewal of the No Child Left Behind Act, would apply only to schools that are undergoing restructuring and is a direct response to concerns they have heard from urban superintendents.

School officials and union critics have long argued that senior teachers, who typically have greater transfer rights under union contracts than their junior colleagues do, tend to leave troubled schools. As a result, they say, such schools have the highest number of inexperienced and less-qualified teachers, which further...