Tenure: Justice or Judge

Teacher tenure is a subject that exhibits many differing opinions and emotions. Teacher tenure has a long history of debate. It first appeared in the late 1800’s and the discussion continues over a hundred years later.  Initially, tenure was a type of insurance for educators that they would not lose their job or position due to political or personal reasons. There was fear that long standing teachers could be replaced by younger, less costly teachers. With our ever changing political climate and tough economic times, there may be some real validity to this train of thought.  There are controversial pros and cons on both sides of this issue.

Some of the “pros” are:

      Prevents teachers from losing their jobs for non-work related (personal differences with administration) reasons.

      Prohibits school districts from firing experienced teachers to hire teachers with less experience and that are less costly.

      Protects teachers from losing their jobs for teaching unpopular or controversial curriculum.

      It is a form of job security that is provided for a profession that is typically under paid for their years of education.

      Provides security to innovative teachers to try new things without the fear of negative repercussions.

Some of the “cons” are:

      Creates complacency among teachers. There is no incentive to work harder or try new things.

      Makes it difficult to remove under performing teachers because of the long legal process.

      Places seniority as the main factor in dismissal decisions that are not performance related.

      There are now other systems in place to protect teachers in the event they may face unfair dismissal practices.

There is more and more discussion among states to abolish the tenure laws. The debate is both political and economic. It is very costly to fire a tenured teacher. And states are looking for ways to hold teachers accountable for poor test scores. Abolishing the tenure laws would make it much easier to dismiss a teacher for her under performing students. That discussion could be a whole other blog! The grounds for dismissing a tenured teacher are detailed and specific. In many situations, administrators and principals choose to not pursue dismissal of a teacher because of the amount of paperwork and effort that it requires. It is much easier to turn their head and overlook the situation. Unfortunately, the students are the ones that are the losers. It is also very discouraging to other educators who work hard and continually look for ways to improve their own performance.

If tenure were to disappear, it would be much easier to dismiss a teacher for a variety of reasons. Once upon a time, teachers could be fired for becoming pregnant! Hopefully, our society today would not allow that type of prejudice. Regardless, the debate continues and there is growing opposition to providing tenure to educators. For the time being, in order to fire an ineffective teacher, they practically have to do something illegal or immoral and you have to have positive proof. There is simply no other profession with that kind of job security.