Our view:A "yes" vote on Proposition 74 is an important tool in the vast project of improving California's schools for our children.

Existing state law grants tenure to new teachers after just two years. After novice teachers get this "permanent" status, incompetents are forever protected by about a dozen major obstacles that prevent school districts from firing them, including the right to take dismissals all the way to the state Court of Appeal. Particularly onerous is a rule that lets lousy instructors stay in classrooms for months or even years in the name of giving them a chance to improve.

The system —— brought to you by voracious unions and their cowed politicians —— makes districts overly timid, hurts children, frustrates the state's many good teachers and rewards burnt-out teachers with years of increasing pay and benefits.

Prop. 74 is a major step in the right direction. The trial period for new teachers would grow from two to five years. Just as important, the process for dismissing incompetent teachers would be efficiently streamlined. Like any worker, teachers could sue, but routine firings would be appealed to school boards rather than several layers of state courts.

North County schools are stuffed with good teachers. We can do even better. This profession is too important to allow a few incompetents to hurt our children's futures. Vote "yes" on Prop. 74.