Teachers Who Won't Teach Should Be Fired: Former U.S. Rep. Barr

GEORGIA — If teachers won’t return to work out of fear of the coronavirus, they ought to be handled the way Ronald Reagan handled striking air-traffic controllers: Fire them all.

That’s the opinion of Bob Barr, former U.S. Representative from Georgia and libertarian firebrand best known for leading the charge during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment.

“Teachers who refuse to teach in the setting for which they were hired — the classroom — need to stop acting like scared bunnies and grow up,” Barr wrote on his blog.

His column was posted Wednesday.

Barr argued that teachers’ employment contracts and their status as essential workers — “as they remind us repeatedly,” he added — requires them to show up for work or be terminated.

Online teaching, Barr wrote, is no solution.

“'Virtual’ teaching is not teaching at all,” he wrote, “it is cinematography.”

Barr was also critical of teachers’ unions, who he sees as holding public education hostage.

Georgia does not have a teacher’s union. However, it does have two professional organizations, the Georgia Association of Educators and the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE).

Can teachers in Georgia be fired?

“They could certainly be fired," Margaret Ciccarelli of PAGE said to WSB-TV in an interview aired Wednesday.

"Once their leave is exhausted, and they’ve got several types of leave available to them under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, FFCRA, 10 days of leave there, and then sick leave if they have an illness, which allows them to use that leave," Ciccarelli said. "But once that leave is expired, if the school district isn’t on board with giving them additional leave, those educators could be fired."

Barr's column can be read in its entirety on his website.

OTHER NEWS:

• Governor Signs Bill Green-Lighting Stores To Deliver Beer, Wine And Liquor
• Student Tests Positive For Coronavirus At Paulding School
• More Cherokee County Students Test Positive For Coronavirus