An effort in the senate to end teacher tenure has hit the wall twice but  the sponsor is planning to take a third run at the issue.

-Senator Jane Cunningham of Chesterfield is convinced many of Missouri’s education problems can be traced to the inability of school districts to get rid of “ineffective” teachers.  Her first proposal covered ending teacher tenure and several other issues…and ran into Senators such as Kevin Engler who wondered if it didn’t go too far. “I think we should probably revise tenure….but I don’t know if we should just get rid of it,” he said.

Cunninghanm’s  pared-down second effort ran into Senate education chairman David Pearce who says the senate needs to slow down.  “To just breing this up in one day on the senate floor and tototally elimiante tenure is a big step,” he told colleaguues.  The senate voted 17-15 for his proposal to form a task force to study the issue and make recommendations before next year’s session, forcing Cunningham to put her bill aside a second time. 

She says she was surprised and disappointed by the vote favoring Pearce’s task force.  She says she’ll draft a third version of the bill and go back to the floor with it. 

 AUDIO: Sen. Cunningham 6:32