School districts would have an easier time firing teachers under changes to tenure laws approved by the state House.
The tenure proposal would rate the effectiveness of teachers based on student test scores.
The bills have begun their march through the Legislature after many years of debating changes to tenure rules.
Democratic state Representative Ellen Cogen Lipton says tenure laws came about to protect teachers from administrators that tried to ban certain books from being taught in the classroom.
She says of course tenure rules should be updated and changed, but she says these changes go too far:
"Rather than go in with the precision of a surgeon with a scalpel, identify a problem and fix it, what these bills do, really, I think, absolutely flay the tenure act with all the zeal of a butcher’s knife," said Lipton.
Republicans say the proposed changes would ensure bad teachers with failing student test scores are removed from classrooms.
The tenure bills were approved along mostly party lines, with one Democrat saying he would discourage his granddaughter from ever teaching in Michigan. The bills now head to the Republican-led state Senate.
