A segment of ABC’s “The View” (featuring Whoopi Goldberg and other guests) appears to attack teacher tenure. You can view a video clip here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/06/the-view-teacher-tenure_n_5652005.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
Bad teachers are a legitimate concern and a source of frustration for administrators, parents, and students. I’m not saying I know the answer to this; I don’t. As a general rule, most of us react to a problem by demanding reform, but we usually let experts figure out the details. Kind of like taking your car to a mechanic when it develops a knocking noise.
I’m not an education expert. But I feel confident in arguing that replacing the tenure system with a patronage system is NOT the way to go. The tenure system wasn’t created to protect the jobs of poorly performing teachers. It serves an essential purpose. It exists to prevent the education process from being hijacked by people with agendas to push, or compromised by the natural human proclivity for favoritism. In short, tenure is a key component of merit-based teacher recruitment and retention.
Common sense argues that if there’s a glitch in how tenure functions, i.e., if it impedes removing bad teachers from classrooms, then we should make adjustments to solve that problem, not scrap the whole system. You wouldn’t throw your car away; you’d have your mechanic adjust the valves (if that’s what’s causing the knock). Maybe teacher tenure practices need a figurative valve adjustment, but our schoolchildren inarguably would be hurt by replacing the merit/tenure system with a patronage or favoritism system.
If you’re unfortunate enough to live in a school district where all the teachers seem underqualified or poorly motivated, maybe the problem is what your school board pays them. No amount of tinkering with personnel practices can change the truism that you get what you’re willing to
pay for.