By Alexander Tillman
VALDOSTA, Ga. | You hear a lot of talk about tenure these days, as the State Board of Regents have modified it for University System employees.
Tillman
Tenure is defined as status granted to an employee, usually after a probationary period, indicating that the position or employment is permanent. It is a strange and controversial subject especially in education. In reality it means a teacher cannot be terminated unless the cause is grievous. The question arises: does this system help or hurt education?
There is a myth that tenure has created thousands of incompetent teachers who cannot be fired. The fact is teachers can be fired. In my years in education, I have personally witnessed teachers being fired. They are usually terminated for excessive absenteeism, being consistently late for work, or neglect of their duties and responsibilities. In my opinion, such teachers deserved to be fired.
What I have found to be true is the problem of incompetent teachers almost always takes care of itself. If a teacher is struggling in the classroom, they are miserable and many will voluntarily leave education, because they realize that they don’t belong there. There is no shame in realizing a career path is not for you. I have seen this happen many times.
Are there more effective teachers than others? Yes, there are. In any occupation there are various degrees of talent. In education there are places you can put a less gifted teacher where they will be more effective. Teaching ninth grade World Geography is less challenging to teach than senior Advanced Placement Economics. Please remember the teacher shortage. We need every available teacher we can get.
If tenure is not protecting incompetent teachers, why do we need tenure? Tenure protects competent teachers from termination. I will give a few examples.
Teachers’ salaries are based on experience and training. Use any search engine to find the teachers’ salary chart for your state. Each year of teaching experience increases the pay scale, as does attaining advanced degrees. A ten year veteran teacher with a master’s degree or higher is earning more than a new teacher with only a bachelor’s degree. That seems reasonable.
If a school system wants to reduce their payroll, they can terminate the higher paid veteran teachers and replace them with lower paid new teachers. They would be making mistakes on several fronts , but it would reduce the budget immediately. This method then becomes a good argument for having tenure.
I have witnessed something else of a more devious nature. Sometimes school administrators are pressured to hire certain individuals in the community. Perhaps the largest church in town is recruiting a new minister whose wife is a kindergarten teacher. There may be pressure to find the preacher’s wife a good job. What about the new high school football coach whose wife is a teacher? I’ll let you fill in the blanks in that situation. Yet competent teachers should not be replaced in the name of favoritism. That’s another point for tenure.
You can see that I support teachers’ tenure in Georgia. A new teacher does not earn tenure until they sign their third contract. Before that time, their contract can be non-renewed without cause. That gives the school system time to evaluate the teacher long term.
As for the teacher shortage, like most occupations, what we need is more good applicants. But keep high the standards for good teachers, and protect them with tenure.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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