By Maxwell Powers

February 4, 2011 4:37 PM | Link to this

The discussion about tenure is really about age discrimination. Education is one of the only remaining fields where the norm is for employees to stay with one employer throughout their careers. In most other careers, people advance in both salary and prestige by moving to a new company. In most cases, this is to the long-term detriment of the employee because of the ups and downs of the economy at any given time. Because education is more stable, wages rise regularly, which drives up costs for older employees. Getting rid of the safety of tenure is just another way to strip away protections that were put in place for a PURPOSE. Just because it’s a new idea, doesn’t make it better.

By Mo..

February 3, 2011 3:46 PM | Link to this

I work in higher education and Tenure is bad for the most part.. I see most, not all, that get tenure also get lazy. Students suffer, hours worked by these tenured professors are a joke and office hours, oh please. It’s not uncommon for these 6 figured professors to work less than 20 hours per week. There are exceptions that deserve it and don’t take advantage. Unfortunately, more take advantage than do not..

By A concerned educator

February 3, 2011 10:14 AM | Link to this

Tenure is a good measure as it prevents or at least limits arbitrary action by administrators. A poor teacher who is tenured can be removed if administrators have sufficient documentation to prove poor performance. No well performing teacher should be removed for administrative expediency at any level. Administrators have to adopt high moral and ethical standards in their work. Few of them do this. Until they do, tenure is necessary. I work for an unprofessional and unethical group of administrators. I wish I had or had had in the past the protection of tenure against thier arbitrary actions done to as they say give themselves flexibility during difficult financial times. With tenure comes the important guarantee of due process which is missing without it. No one benefits from arbitrary decisions.

By non-classified

February 3, 2011 8:44 AM | Link to this

Tenure is an outdated concept that needs to be eliminated.Keeping your job should be based on current job performance,continuing education,attendance, and day to day interaction between students, parents, and staff and not because you belong to the “good ole boy club”.

By trapped

February 2, 2011 10:49 PM | Link to this

Why don’t teachers stick to old methods that work? Because our principals threaten us with bad evaluations if we don’t. Also, whenever a teacher tries a new methodology, there is a temporary decrease in effectiveness while she works out the kinks. Unfortunately, some districts keep throwing new method after new method at teachers, and the result is that there is a constant decrease in effectiveness. If districts would let us learn just one new methodology a year—and I mean REALLY learn it, inside and out—kids would be a lot better off. Rare is the principal who will stand up to the district office and tell them they’re not going to implement the new idea because her staff is still working on the old one. But for those of you who do—thank you!! :)

By Laura

February 2, 2011 8:17 PM | Link to this

@ohiodale: where did you get your information? You are wrong. High school teachers do have to major in their teaching fields. Every year teachers of all grades have to sign a paper attesting to their qualified fields. High school teachers do take advanced classes in their subject matter. But because they also have to take other classes, such as methods classes, they can’t be expected to take as many subject matter classes as a major who isn’t planning to teach. Few could afford to stay in school long enough to take all the available major classes as well as education classes. As to tenure, I have seen too many good teachers nearly lose their jobs (and 2 did) for reasons other than incompetence. If anyone thinks racism isn’t rapant (in both directions) they just need to spend some time in Dayton. If you think teachers haven’t had to fight through the union to keep their jobs simply because a principal didn’t like them, you really have no idea how easy it is to fire an innocent teacher. Are there incompetent teachers in the classrooms? Absolutely. But there are very effective ways to remove teachers. It does require an administrator to do their job. And there, is the real problem. Not only is the teacher not doing their job- the administrator isn’t doing theirs. Not the fault of tenure.

By Tully

February 2, 2011 7:51 PM | Link to this

The argument that tenure protects bad or incompetent teachers is inaccurate. If an administrator is effective and is doing his/her job and keeps abreast of the job his/her teachers are doing, then incompetent teachers would not remain in the classroom. It is up to the administrator to be vigilant and knowledgeable of the performance level of those teachers within that school.Schools have guidelines outlining teacher evaluation, and if enforced by administrators, then incompetent teachers would be eliminated from the school system. Administrators need to do their job effectively in order for schools to keep only highly qualified teachers on staff.

By Tenure?

February 2, 2011 6:57 PM | Link to this

In these days of education budget cutting, and getting most for your tax dollar, allowing a non-productive teacher to stay only because they have tenure is counter-productive, to all parties involved.

By Carly

February 2, 2011 5:21 PM | Link to this

Only someone who has no idea as to the hard work that most teachers do to educate our children would think that tenure is ‘for the weak and lazy’. And the idea that people go into education ‘just for the summer vacations’ is also misinformed. Reforms are definitely needed, but eliminating this much needed job security for competent teachers is just plain ‘stoooooopid’

By Passing peach seeds

February 2, 2011 5:01 PM | Link to this

I was finally tenured after 16 years as a teacher. I always gave my best everyday to the students. I feel a relaxed teacher passes learning on to the students more effective than a harried teacher wondering when the axe will fall. There are measurments and evaluations in place to keep effective teachers. Maybe past bully practices have resulted in today’s system

By Skeptic

February 2, 2011 5:00 PM | Link to this

The issue of tenure at the university level is not the same as grade school. It really has little to do with teaching methods. College professors have doctoral degrees and they are expected to do scholarly research. Tenure matters because they may have ideas outside the norm. Elementary education is largely standardized and taught by people with bachelor or master degrees. They are not doing real research. Most teachers are excellent, but the few bad ones should be fired if they can’t shape up.

By ohiodale

February 2, 2011 4:31 PM | Link to this

There are other means to fight being let go for unjust reasons. This is the same excuse all the unions use and they are all untrue. Tenure is one of the reasons the education system in our country sucks but there are plenty of other reasons. As far as teachers trying new teaching methods why did teahcers stop using the old methods that worked. The US used to have one of the best if not the best education system in the world and now we are average at best. Maybe we should go back to the old methods which used to cost much less money and got much better results. I doubt most high school math teachers have ever taken an advanced college math class and they certainly do not major in math. Also, english teachers do not take the same english classes as an english major. What is up with this? I think its because most people majoring in education could not pass these classes.

By Tony

February 2, 2011 3:56 PM | Link to this

No one other than a teacher or someone else that is protected by a union could possibly think tenure is a good idea.

By Chickens-All

February 2, 2011 2:28 PM | Link to this

Tenure is for the weak and lazy. I do not buy for a minute the excuse of being protected for trying new teaching methods. Can you say Stoooopid?

By Agree with Rhee

February 2, 2011 2:08 PM | Link to this

New York Times- Education- Nov. 12, 2008 “Michelle Rhee, the hard charging chancellor of Washington public schools thinks teacher tenure may be great for adults, those who go into teaching to get summer vacations and great health insurance , for instance. But it hurts children ,she says, by making incompetant teachers harder to fire…. Tenure is the holy grail of teacher unions, but has no educational value for kids, it only benefits adults.”

By oldtimer

February 2, 2011 1:40 PM | Link to this

I have heard a number of people propose firing older teachers and replacing them with younger or beginning teachers who command lower salaries as a means of cutting expenses. Tenure keeps this from happening. If a teacher is really performing poorly there are ways to deal with that other than taking tenure away from deserving teachers. Denying tenure would be akin to throwing the baby out with the bath water.

By Bowtie

February 2, 2011 1:25 PM | Link to this

The tenure law is much like other issues,laws or situations—there are both good and detrimental sides to it! Tenure laws were passed to prevent the unfair dismissal of a teacher/ professor for some side issue-such as a different political belief. But tenure protects some that are ineffective and incom- petent. Tenure laws need to changed—not eliminated!