[quote=livinincali][quote=CA renter]
The problem is that I’ve seen other teachers who were terrorized by administrators and wrongfully terminated (and won lawsuits as a result). I’ve seen parents in the vocal minority who were hell-bent on trying to oust a particular teacher just because she was older, or didn’t do things exactly the way this particular group liked. I can’t think of any other profession (other than politics) that is so scrutinized and so beholden to such a large number of people who have no education, experience, or knowledge about the profession.[/quote]
I honestly don’t think having tenure or not having tenure changes this. If someone is truly wrongly terminated they still have the courts to reconcile that action without tenure. If administrator ends up in court more than once on wrongful terminations then fire the administrator. You have cause at that point.
I think everybody can agree that between tenure and union rules it was incredibly difficult to fire a teacher with cause. It was such a process that administrators didn’t want to go through the time and effort of doing it, even if it was the right thing to do. I don’t even know if being an ineffective teacher was actually cause. Usually it’s something far worse, like sleeping with students.[/quote]
Without the unions and tenure, many teachers will be fired without legitimate cause. The administrators/parents will always be able to drum up some kind of excuse to justify it: inappropriate clothing showing cleavage, too friendly with students, to strict with students, benched students during recess (yes, some parents have threatened to sue because of this), test results didn’t improve enough (even though the students might have been a particularly tough lot), etc.
Also, how do you think the teachers are going to pay for the legal expenses to fight these unjustified terminations? The unions are the ones who put up all the money and spend all the time on these cases. If you get rid of tenure, and get rid of all of the other perks for teachers, there will be no union…that is the ultimate goal of the Privatization Movement.
If there is any job in the world that needs tenure, it’s teaching. That being said, I do agree that getting rid of truly bad teachers (and public employees, generally) needs to be easier.
