South Carolina teacher "contracts" are not actually contracts

"Other Duties as Assigned" (Part One Million)

A contract is an agreement between parties, creating mutual obligations that are enforceable by law. The basic elements required for the agreement to be a legally enforceable contract are: mutual assent, expressed by a valid offer and acceptance; adequate consideration; capacity; and legality.

-Definition from Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute (emphasis mine)

Some of the earliest pieces from this newsletter focused on how utterly one-sided South Carolina’s teacher “contracts” are.

In fact, several pieces in the conglomeration of final straws that pushed me out of the teaching profession for good last year were related to these “agreements” and the way the state— frequently with the cooperation of elected school boards and district HR departments— uses them to exploit teachers.

South Carolina essentially does not allow public employees the ability to collectively bargain, and the state does not create any real incentive for districts to compromise with employees, or to m…