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I have said this before, but it bears repeating as it is one of the major obstacles to improving the performance of our public schools. Tenure has no place whatsoever in K-12 education. It makes sense in Universities, where the professors are not only expected to teach, but also to investigate and publish, pushing the boundries of knowledge in their area of expertise. That will necessarily entail contreversy. In such an instance, tenure allows the academics sufficient job security to take risks which are vital to the advancement of knowledge. None of that is found in K-12 education, where the job of teachers begins and ends with teaching our children fundamentals. That "tenure" has found its way into the K-12 world of public education is utterly ridiculous.
Chris Christie, to his credit, gets it.
Contrary to what the teachers union president says, this is not about simply shortening the time it takes to fire bad teachers. It is about holding all K-12 teachers responsible for their continuing performance and only retaining those who are succeeding and needed. That is how all K-12 educational systems should be run. K-12 education is about teaching the children, not, as teacher's unions have made it, providing a near permanent job for a union member.
(H/T Hot Air)
Friday, January 14, 2011
Christie: End Tenure For Public School Teachers
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3 comments:
We have exactly the same problem in Britain. There is a stitch-up between the teachers' unions and the officials in local authorities (mostly county councils) which run schools. If you add to that the fact that some of the councils are Labour-controlled and that the Labour party is largely funded by the trade union movement, you can begin to grasp the scale of the problem.
Successive Conservative governments have largely failed to cut this knot although they have tried.
The civil servants in central government and the staff of teacher training colleges are (with a few exceptions) politically correct, cultural Marxists.
I could give you several instances from personal experience but it would take too long . I was fortunate. I could afford (just) to educate our children privately but most people are stuck with the state system (which can be good in parts)
Weird...
When I was in the K12 system, I had met many talented teachers and their problem was the fact that teachers earned so little. Nearly all had jobs outside of being a school teacher and it was very hard to recruit new talent. Under those circumstances, it would make sense to allow tenure. I still have a difficult time believing that NJ k-12 teachers constitute such a drain on NJ budget.
> as teacher's unions have made it, providing a near permanent job for a union member.
Ah, but that IS the job of unions, pretty much, innit?
> I still have a difficult time believing that NJ k-12 teachers constitute such a drain on NJ budget.
Just investigate the numbers. Teachers are now among the highest paid professions, esp. considering that they work 9 months out of the year and generally receive exceptional pensions, healthcare plans, and other benefits.
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