The movie “Waiting for Superman” talks about a “Dance of the Lemons,” an unfortunate outcome of the fact that it is virtually impossible to fire bad educators in this country.

Sometimes, bad ones are just traded to another school system – solving nothing, of course. Getting bad teachers completely out of the schoolhouse is often impossible. Even when educators are involved with significant misbehavior, too often they evade separation from both our schools and your children.

When it comes to difficulties in removing problem educators from public schools, Kentucky may have one of the more troubled systems. For instance, a case currently pending against David Mike, the former principal of the Louisville Male High School may provide new evidence that the interests of adults within our public education system receive far more consideration than the students

Tenured teachers in Kentucky can appeal to a Teacher Tribunal if a local school system wants to fire them. For teachers, that can be a shrewd move.

WDRB reports:

“More than 70 percent of the terminations that went to tribunals in Kentucky from 2005 through 2010 were partially or completely reversed, according to data requested by and shared with the state's Interim Joint Committee on Education in November 2011.”

Mike has appealed to the Tribunal process, and his hearing is scheduled for December 9, 2014 in Louisville.

Here are some of the allegations involving Mike that need to be addressed:

1. In late 2013, ACT, Inc, ("ACT") received reports concerning certain testing practices at Louisville Male High School ("Male") involving ACT Compass, including unauthorized copying of ACT Compass items, unauthorized educator assistance and student-to-student assistance during tests. ACT staff interviewed Male students and staff and concluded that:

a) Test items in the ACT Compass Windows tests were copied by Male test takers without ACT authorization and Male staff did not prohibit this practice or report it to ACT;

b) Male staff assisted students with correctly answering the copied ACT Compass items;

c) Students were encouraged to take multiple tests on the ACT Compass Windows version to "practice" for the ACT Compass internet version tests reported to the Kentucky Department of Education ("KDE").

d) Male teachers and students assisted other students in responding to items during the ACT Compass Windows tests;

e) ACT had no record of payment for the ACT Compass Windows tests delivered at Male.

Given that students have talked publicly about some of the alleged misbehavior, including Mike allegedly coaching students before they talked to investigators, it will be interesting to see how this works out.