Teacher Tenure: Yes!
In his New York Times op-ed of August 19, Frank Bruni has become only the latest in a long line of authoritative people to denounce teacher tenure. By so doing, Bruni enters the race to become my least favorite Times columnist, against the stiff competition of Maureen Dowd and David Brooks.If you have been following this discussion, you may wonder what could possibly be said in favor of tenure for teachers (at all levels, K-12 and university). The arguments for ending tenure sound very persuasive.
In the first place, we are all in favor of having the best and the brightest teaching our most precious product, our kids. But so many teachers, perhaps even the majority, are bad teachers: incompetent, uncaring, bullying, indoctrinating with evil ideas – and so on. And despite clear evidence of their dreadfulness, after a short probationary period (usually three years), they are guaranteed lifetime employment, and the rules are such that no matter how much evidence is presented about the incompetence or worse of a teacher, it is almost impossible to get rid of her or him. The arguments against tenure always are packed with anecdotes about especially and luridly bad cases, so that after you’ve encountered a few, you are ready to believe that just about all teachers are monsters before whom we, the people, are helpless.
But I think there are some strong arguments on the other side. And we should understand why so many Americans want to cut teachers down to size. It may not have all that much to do with their competence or lack of it.
Teaching is, and should be understood to be, the most important job a society can offer its members. Education at all levels, but especially at the earliest, is the great civilizing force. What is taught in schools is the glue that binds us together as a nation and as human beings, what we share and what we expect one another to know. Therefore it is of the utmost importance that the people entrusted to transmit this body of knowledge to the next generation should be the best and the brightest.
How does a society ensure that the most important jobs will be given to the best and the brightest? By ensuring that those jobs are the most rewarding – whether because they pay the most, are the most Supporting Teacher Tenure: