Teacher Rights

Free Speech and Academic Freedom

A discussion of the expression rights of teachers involves the balance between the rights and responsibilities of public school employees and the institutions themselves. This balance is best met through an analysis of the capacities the speakers have taken to express their views. At one end of the balance, one must ask whether teachers are speaking as citizens, as employees, or as educators teaching in classrooms. At the other end, one must ask whether the interest of a school board in restricting teacher speech is inspired by its role as sovereign, employer, or educator, in the sense of being the leader of school curriculum. A series of U.S. Supreme Court cases illustrate this balance.

Teacher as Citizen

For purposes of free speech analysis, the difference between the role of teachers as citizens and as employee is often small. However, the judicial determination of what role speakers play is assuredly an important one, almost entirely dependent on one threshold question, asked most prominently in the landmark Supreme Court case of Pickering v. Board of Education of Township High School District 205, Will County (1968): Is the speech related to a matter of public concern? If the answer is “yes,” the courts tend to favor speakers as citizens and restrict public employers' suppression of the expressive activities. If the answer is “no,” the courts generally find in favor of the employers, allowing them wide latitude in the governance of their internal affairs.

In Pickering, a school board sought to dismiss a public school teacher after he wrote a letter to the editor of a local newspaper criticizing the board for its appropriation of funds and its handling of two failed tax levy campaigns. The board countered with accusations that the statements in the letter were false and had a negative impact on the efficient operation of the schools. In reality, the community and many of the teacher's co worker s greeted the letter with a good measure of apathy and disbelief. The letter itself was not directly critical of any particular board members or school administrators. The teacher unsuccessfully appealed his dismissal, but state courts in Illinois rejected his First Amendment claims.

On further review before the Supreme Court, the Court reversed in favor of the teacher. In an initial statement, the Court rejected the argument that public [Page 808]employees give up their constitutional rights as citizens on accepting government employment. According to the Court,