Thompson: Embracing Tenure
If Secretary Duncan wants moderates in teachers unions to persuade the rank-in-file to make compromises on seniority and using student growth data in evaluations, he should embrace Governor Crist’s veto of Florida’s "reform" legislation. The concessions that Duncan seeks are possible only when built on the rock of tenure.
Conservatives in the education providers complex who oppose unions may hope that teachers will follow telephone operators into oblivion as we become clerks monitoring the data systems that they peddle. But progressives would be horrified if their alma mater ended tenure, thus driving the First Amendment from their beloved college campus. Liberals who would never
