New York City passed an ordinance that would offer legal protections to school staff if they whistle blow on illegal practices in schools. However, Mayor Bloomberg has indicated that he will veto this law claiming that it would give teachers and other staff a tool to hold over administrative staff.
It would seem a simple matter of legislative draftsmenship to either not allow any protections if the charges have no reasonable basis, or to build in other legal penalties if the law was abused. There are other whistle blower acts that could be used as a model.
Under the mayor’s analysis, the best way to improve schools would be to keep everything in-house not subject to legal outside scrutiny. So much for transparency in governance and Justice Brandeis’ dicta that "Sunshine is the best disinfectant." Perhaps as one reader who commented on a earlier post on this topic, whistleblowing protection will become a matter of Federal law; it certainly is needed.