Today’s WSJ editorial, No (Tenured) Teacher Left Behind, addressed the problem of tenure in our public school systems. Tenure, the contractual right not to face employment termination without just cause, has been used in colleges and universities to insure academic freedom. It’s used in the federal judiciary to guarantee judicial independence. It has become a handicap to competent jurisprudence and quality secondary public education.
While academic freedom at the university level can arguably be justified given the variety of disciplines and research orientation, there is no possible justification for tenure at the secondary level. At the university level tenure is earned by research and publication over several initial years of work; if not granted after a stated period it is never granted. At the secondary level public employee teachers are granted tenure as a matter of course, typically after three years. No real qualification is required other than not showing up on a police blotter during those initial years! Public school administrators typically find less than 2% of new teachers unsatisfactory even though students fail to meet basic academic standards year after year and even in LA where the drop out rate is 35% and growing. Finally, “academic freedom” at the primary and secondary levels is an oxymoron!
Tenure as fostered by the teachers unions begets the mediocrity for which unions are generally known. There is no striving for excellence only striving for conformity and strength in numbers. As I have said ad nauseam, public employee unions have no place in our political system; the unholy alliance between union members and politicians will bankrupt our society. This is especially true in education where we are dealing with our most precious resource, our future!
What about Nevada? We spend way in excess of inflation, a 48% increase in Nevada’s education spending from 2006 to 2009! Yet we consistently have test scores lower than the national average. (See the National Center for Education Statistics)
We need a system in which excellent teachers can be retained and financially rewarded. We need a system in which the deadwood, protected by tenure and teachers unions, can be discarded.
So when you hear cries against education cuts please remember that spending has grown dramatically beyond the combination of population growth and inflation over the last several years. Student progress as measured by test scores has not kept pace. So a logical conclusion would be to look for educational barriers elsewhere. I submit that tenure along with teachers unions would be good places to start.
Tom Motherway