Tenure for educators in under attack from all sides. Christ Christie, Scott Walker, Michele Rhee, Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, and (at times) President Obama himself have all joined in the attack on due process. Some folks that identify themselves as part of the movement to improve urban education, left libertarians, and business model progressives seem to enjoy chiming in to slam the tenure system for educators. I sent the following letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer and Delaware County Daily Times today in order to help add my own views on the issue to the chorus of voices out there on education. As a teacher who benefited from phenomenal teachers as a student, I felt the need to comment.
Here is my letter. I hope it brings in some productive comments, the usual trolling that most education diaries here do, and some well explained counterpoints.
Financial discussions over our education aside, I would like to offer a vehement defense of teacher tenure in light of attacks by such politicians and officials such as Chris Christie, Michael Bloomberg, Scott Walker, Michele Rhee, Arne Duncan, and at times President Obama himself. Tenure for teachers is not a guarantor of protection from firing, it is merely an assurance that due process be applied prior to dismissal from one's job.
The motive behind this attack on tenure is simple; remove all highly paid teachers from the school system in place of fresh college graduates. The private sector has been on a 3 decades long attack on workers over the age of 50 and the prophets of business world ideology are seeking to ruin our schools.
As a proud graduate of the Upper Darby School District, my educational experience was enriched by many educators who were past 50 when they instructed me or are still hard at teaching past their 50th birthdays. With apologies to spelling I would like to acknowledge the strong work of Mrs. Cronin, Mrs. Steimetz, Mr. Devinny, Mrs. Krouse, Mr. Erikson, Mr. Funk, Mrs. Fiegel, Mr. O'Connell, Mrs. Hauger, Mr. Leety, Mr. Farr, Mr. Ciminera, Mrs. Wuetig, Mr. Martin, Mr. Doyle, Mr. McCouch, and Mr. Krout.
No doubt my education featured many young teachers that were excellent at their craft, but how easy would it have been for any district to fix a budget by firing an older teacher and replacing that teacher with a new hire at half price? Tenure prevents short sighted school boards from playing games with the instructional staff to fix a budget. Tenure prevents reactionary members of school boards and the community as a whole from destroying academic freedom in instruction.
No doubt many schools have some members of the teaching staff who would be best to find other careers. More often than not tenure is not to blame for the continued employment of an ineffective educator. If one cares to do a little research most difficult to fire educators; have their jobs based on nepotism, political connections, or have been supervised by ladder climbing administrators more focused on their next promotion.
On a final note: please help save our schools. There is a major march scheduled for this July in DC to really help awake the country to all of the evils that plague and attack our school system. Teacher Ken turned me on to this group, I am now involved, and we're going live very soon. Please follow the link and see if you can help in any way.
Save Our Schools March