Teaching Profession

Hatch Job: D.C. Teacher Loses Post Over Run for Office

By Erik W. Robelen — April 24, 2002 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

If Tom Briggs taught school in Washington’s Virginia or Maryland suburbs, he probably would still have a job.

But a little-known provision of federal law prohibits teachers in the District of Columbia from running for political office. And now Mr. Briggs, a social studies teacher at Dunbar Senior High School here who ran for the District of Columbia Council in 2000, has been sent notice that he would lose his job as of April 23.

Public school teachers in every state have long been exempt from the 62-year-old Hatch Act, the law that limits the political activities of certain government employees. But as part of revisions made to the law in 1993, teachers here lost that protection. Some suggest the change amounted to a technical error. If so, it was never fixed.

“I’m outraged,” Mr. Briggs, 41, said of the decision to fire him. “This isn’t a job for me, this is my life.” He said the law unfairly singles out teachers in Washington.

James A. Baxley, the deputy general counsel for the 67,000-student school system, said the district simply followed orders from the federal government.

“The federal law here is pretty clear,” Mr. Baxley said. He noted that the federal Office of Special Counsel, which enforces the Hatch Act, warned Mr. Briggs during his 2000 campaign that he was violating the law. “He refused to either abandon his candidacy or resign his position,” Mr. Baxley said.

Mr. Briggs acknowledges that he was given fair warning. He explained that since his students, family, and friends knew he was running, he felt it would have been a mistake to drop out.

“I thought it was important to make a stand against this unfair law,” he said. He ultimately lost in his bid as a D.C. Statehood Green Party candidate challenging incumbent Democrat Jack Evans for a seat on the council.

Law’s History

The Hatch Act restricts the political activities of executive-branch employees of the federal government, as well as certain state and local agencies. In 1993, Congress altered the law to allow most federal and District of Columbia government employees to engage in many, but not all, types of political activities. For example, they can now take part in political campaigns, but are still prohibited from running for public office.

A recent Washington Post story quoted a former Senate aide involved in the 1993 effort, who essentially said deleting the Hatch Act exemption for Washington schoolteachers was a technical error that did not get fixed because of political complications.

Leslie Phillips, a spokeswoman for Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Democrats, said, “The committee is investigating the history of this amendment to determine if in fact it was a mistake and to see if there’s anything that needs to be done about it.”

Matthew Yeo, Mr. Briggs’ lawyer, said that his client was appealing the federal order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which hears appeals of federal administrative decisions. Mr. Briggs plans to file a motion this week that would allow him to keep his job while the case is pending.

The action to dismiss Mr. Briggs came after the school district received a federal order to do so. The Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent federal agency, late last month granted the Office of Special Counsel’s petition for disciplinary action against him.

Meanwhile, William Lockridge, the vice president of the District of Columbia school board, put forward a resolution supporting Mr. Briggs at a board meeting last week. The board did not vote on it.

What if efforts to reinstate Mr. Briggs fail?

“I don’t know what I will do,” he said. “I refuse to make any future plans because I’m optimistic and I’m very idealistic, and it’s very hard for me to believe that when a rule is so blatantly unjust, that the system will follow it.”

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the April 24, 2002 edition of Education Week as Hatch Job: D.C. Teacher Loses Post Over Run for Office

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Mathematics Webinar
Pave the Path to Excellence in Math
Empower your students' math journey with Sue O'Connell, author of “Math in Practice” and “Navigating Numeracy.”
Content provided by hand2mind
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Recruitment & Retention Webinar
Combatting Teacher Shortages: Strategies for Classroom Balance and Learning Success
Learn from leaders in education as they share insights and strategies to support teachers and students.
Content provided by DreamBox Learning
Classroom Technology K-12 Essentials Forum Reading Instruction and AI: New Strategies for the Big Education Challenges of Our Time
Join the conversation as experts in the field explore these instructional pain points and offer game-changing guidance for K-12 leaders and educators.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Teaching Profession Teachers Work 50-Plus Hours a Week—And Other Findings From a New Survey on Teacher Pay
Planning, preparation, and other duties stretch teachers' working hours long past what's in their contracts.
5 min read
Elementary teacher, working at her desk in an empty classroom.
martinedoucet/E+
Teaching Profession From Our Research Center How Many Teachers Work in Their Hometown? Here's the Latest Data
New survey data shows that many teachers stay close to home, but do they want to?
1 min read
Illustration of a 3D map with arrows going all over the states.
iStock/Getty
Teaching Profession In Their Own Words 'I Was Not Done': How Politics Drove This Teacher of the Year Out of the Classroom
Karen Lauritzen was accused of being a pro-LGBTQ+ activist. The consequences derailed her career.
6 min read
Karen Lauritzen stands for a portrait on the Millikin University Campus in Decatur, Ill., on August 30, 2023. Idaho’s Teacher of the Year moved to Illinois for a new job due to right-wing harassment over her support of the LGBTQ+ community and Black Lives Matter.
Karen Lauritzen stands for a portrait on the Millikin University Campus in Decatur, Ill., on August 30, 2023. Laurizen, Idaho’s 2023 Teacher of the Year, moved to Illinois for a new job due to harassment over her support of the LGBTQ+ community and Black Lives Matter.
Neeta R. Satam for Education Week
Teaching Profession Reported Essay Public Schools Rely on Underpaid Female Labor. It’s Not Sustainable
Women now have more career options. Is that why they are leaving the teaching profession?
9 min read
Illustration of contemporary teacher looking at a line-up of mostly female teachers through the history of public education in the United States.
Traci Debarko for Education Week