Why do Americans allow teacher tenure to continue?

Question

Tenure is an insane concept.

Answer 1

I COMPLETELY AGREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!


ARGGGGGHHHHHH

Answer 2

"Tenure" does not mean that you cannot get fired...it just makes the process a little more difficult.
Tenure provides teachers with job security, something that is much deserved in a profession where little thanks is given for the extreme amount of work done.

Administrators (principals, VPs, etc.) have a higher turnover/mobility rate than good teachers, and sometimes a mis-match occurs at a school site...in this situation, it is good for a teacher to know that their job is secure, even though their principal may not 'like' them.

And like those above me stated, most bad teachers are weeded out before they achieve tenure...and even when they do, teachers are under constant supervision by their administrators, and are formally evaluated every few years (2 in CA)...a process that involves several formal and informal evaluations as well as meetings with administrators

...all in all, if someone tells you a teacher cannot be fired because of tenure...it means that either they don't agree with your issue, or they are too scared them self to address the situation.

Answer 3

Regardless of all the "teacher" input on this question, tenure has been the downfall of education throughout the U.S.

GOOD teachers do not have to fear the school boards, positive student and parental input will usually take care of that.

MEDIOCRE teachers need tenure in order to continue to cheat their students out of an education their parents are paying for.

Why do we continue to allow tenure to continue? Because the PUBLIC will not challenge the teachers' unions. Note: I said the PUBLIC! School administrators have often tried but most often their attempts end in failure because of the legalese incorporated in teacher contracts.

I believe that the taxpayers in a school district could actually destroy the stranglehold the union has in education if they would just form a "union" of their own, backed with adequate finances, and take on the union every time a "teacher" makes negative headlines or meets with district wide dissatisfaction over time.

Answer 4

Tenure has a bad reputation mainly because administrators do not do their jobs. Tenured teachers can be removed for several reasons including insubordination and immorality in most states. Usually their is another category for removal called " for just cause" that can cover almost any infraction. The problem is that administrators do not document problems with teachers properly in a way that will hold up in court. Thus, schools systems have avoided firing tenured teachers because they are afraid of being sued.

Answer 5

It may seem like a silly concept, but it exists to protect career teachers from being cut whenever they are deemed too expensive. Without it, school boards who are looking to reduce their budgets would fire everyone with a few years experience and hire straight from college to keep the payroll down. Would this be fair. MOST teachers would love a better system, but the tenure keeps them from being downsized and penalized for having experience and earning more. It keeps good teachers in schools more often than it keeps bad ones.

It is a misconception that once tenured, there is no way to get rid of a bad teacher, but in truth, if they are bad, that contract usually has a clause about professionalism and the ability to meet the goals and standards of the district.

Answer 6

To build on a previous comment: look at masters degrees. My instuctor in college got her masters three years after she graduated with her bachelors. A new principal was hired in her district and they had differing philosophies. She was not yet tenured and was pushed out, even thouh she was a very good teacher. She was practically unhireable for the local school districts in her area because they would have had to pay her much more than a recent grad. This instructor got lucky and found an opening at my university. This may not happen a lot, but more often than you think.

Answer 7

Tenure in California public schools is called "Due Process". This concept exists in the private sector in many states.

*In CA, it means that a teacher cannot be faced with an action which would adversely affect his/her employment status without sufficient proof of incompetence/wrongdoing.

*Incompetent teachers may/SHOULD be fired.

*Most administrators in CA tend to cry,"tenure!" when faced with an incompetent teacher, because they don't want to actually go through the effort to document the incompetence/administrative attempts at remediation of the incompetence of the offending teacher.

*Most of the incompetent jerks who DO end up staying in the teaching profession are usually there because of the corporate climate of the institution within which they teach.

Answer 8

Teachers get better with experience. An experienced teacher is far more likely to be effective than a brand new one. Yet the vast majority of teachers quit the job before they've been teaching 6 years.

So schools have a MUCH bigger problem with not being able to keep qualified teachers around, than they do with not being able to fire bad teachers. Tenure is one of the incentives to keep teachers around long enough for them to get good at their jobs. It also protects good teachers' jobs as the previous answer pointed out.

Teaching is a crappy job with way fewer perks than you might think.

Answer 9

Yeah, but it's really good if you're the teacher in question. Also, there are still a few teachers good enough to deserve tenure--why deny them the reward?

Answer 10

Many schools will know if a teacher is bad before he/she receives tenure.

Answer 11

Private schools don't have tenure. But the teachers' union fights for it in public schools.