Tenure Should Not Be for Life

One of the hottest school-reform topics these days, particularly in the popular press, is the need to evaluate and revise the laws governing teacher tenure. The public often sees these laws as providing unreasonable job protection for ineffective, mediocre, or even incompetent educators. And even those in the know have begun questioning whether the job security tenure provides can become counterproductive, serving as a disincentive, in a time of reform, to making meaningful changes in teaching methods. Legislatures in some states are considering proposals to eliminate tenure altogether, based on the premise that to do so would improve the quality of the teacher workforce by making it easier to dismiss the incompetent. (See Education Week, April 17, 1996.)

Currently, teachers and administrators in the state of New York, for example, are granted tenure after three years of full-time teaching experience. That is a job safeguard that remains with the educator for the rest of the time he or she spends in that particular district. Once an educator has earned tenure, dismissal becomes much more difficult, time-consuming, and costly. While certain other professions may afford similar protection through negotiated contracts or regulations, such as civil service, a teacher's position is considered a proprietary asset by New York state law, a protection...