Retired Colo. teacher defends unions and tenure | EdNews Parent

Retired Colo. teacher defends unions and tenure | EdNews Parent

A retired Dougco teacher’s take on tenure

by R. Kim Herrell

There has been much discussion of late about teacher tenure and whether it impedes reform and the quality of public education by protecting bad teachers. EdNews Parent expert and retired Dougco teacher R. Kim Herrell shares his personal views on the subject.

You would think this would be simple to answer, but in the three school law courses I have taken, the issue of teacher tenure has been one of the most hotly debated. Some folks in the general public, led by others with a clear anti-union agenda, seem to think that it is a magic forcefield that makes teachers untouchable, at least from firing. In my opinion, that is simply not the case. It has never been that way, but it sure can look that way if procedures aren’t followed.

In my first school law course, we were asked to equate tenure with “due process.” Teachers who didn’t behave for three years would have to be told why they were being fired and could counter the firing at a hearing. The administration and district could move for dismissal, though, of a teacher anytime during those first three years: first week; first semester; first year; second; third.

That doesn’t sound so bad to me.

Due process itself, however, is a little more complicated. The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that the government may not “deprive any person