SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Perhaps the third time is a charm. California lawmakers are considering legislation for the third consecutive year aimed at making it easier to terminate teachers accused of heinous crimes against students.

In years past, the California Teachers Association – one of the state’s powerful teachers unions – helped kill legislation that would have sped the termination process for teachers accused of especially egregious misconduct.

But this year things are a little bit different. Assembly Bill 215, introduced by Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, may actually have a chance to become law – with the support of the CTA – after local education reform advocates essentially boxed the union into a corner.

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“Now the CTA has joined forces with EdVoice, an organization that usually plays the role of the union’s ideological adversary, to back a bifurcated process. EdVoice had put pressure on the union by introducing a ballot initiative creating a separate process to fire teachers who abuse kids or sell them drugs,” the Sacramento Bee reports.

“EdVoice has since dropped the ballot measure, titled the ‘Stop Child Molesters, Sexual Abusers and Drug Dealers from Working in California Schools Act,’ though it plans to reintroduce it if Buchanan’s bill fails.”

In other words, change is inevitable, either by an act of the legislature or a vote of the people. The CTA is apparently not willing to bet that voters would reject a ballot initiative designed to protect children from pedophile teachers.

Cracking down on pedophile teachers has become a major priority in California after a string of high-profile and very disturbing molestation cases in recent years. Los Angeles elementary teacher Mark Berndt, who allegedly fed blindfolded youngsters his bodily fluids, was paid $40,000 in 2011 to drop his appeal because the termination process is unbelievably lengthy and expensive.

Countless other cases of educator misconduct occur in California and across the country each year, costing schools millions in salaries for accused teachers as administrators navigate a labyrinth of appeals, evidence hearings, and numerous other steps necessary to permanently remove them from the classroom. Millions more are spent on legal services necessary to send a bad teacher packing.

Buchanan’s bill would expedite the appeals process for teachers accused of molesting, abusing or dealing drugs to students by creating a new “egregious misconduct” category of dismissal charges. If teachers in that category opt to fight their terminations, AB 215 would require a hearing within 60 days before a single administrative law judge, instead of a three-judge panel as it is now.

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The legislation would also reportedly speed the process by limiting evidence gathering, and would allow administrators to use evidence dating back longer than four years. Currently, school officials can only use evidence from the past four years to make their case.

What’s interesting is the CTA’s support for AB215, and the idea of shortening the termination process for the most heinous crimes, comes just two years after it opposed state Sen. Alex Padilla’s legislation in 2012 to do essentially the same thing.

It’s likely the CTA saw the writing on the wall with EdVoice’s ballot initiative and is now working to mitigate the impact the inevitable changes will have on its members.

In other words, the union understands most parents and taxpayers would gladly vote to “Stop Child Molesters, Sexual Abusers and Drug Dealers from Working in California Schools,” and are looking to cut its losses before it’s too late.