What TIME Magazine Needs to Know
about Tenure and Why it Matters
(From National Education Association/California Teachers Association)
The cover story for the November 3rd issue of Time, The War on Teacher Tenure, sensationalizes the attempts of a few tech millionaires to take on due process policies like tenure in court. Time’s cover purposefully gives the false impression that there are many, many bad teachers in our public schools and that due process rights like tenure make it nearly impossible to fire them. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The heroes of our public education system are not Silicon Valley millionaires and their corporate lawyers, but are the teachers who greet our children every day at the schoolhouse door. Due process policies like tenure protect proven professional teachers and ensure that students are taught by experienced and well-trained professionals. If Time’s writer and editors had bothered to talk to even a single teacher, they would have known that teachers receive tenure only after they earn certification, meet rigorous performance expectations, and prove themselves in the classroom for an extended period of time.
Prior to earning tenure, teachers can be terminated without cause. After earning tenure, teachers still can be fired, for cause, and tenure provides them with the right to know why they are being fired and a fair opportunity to challenge the dismissal. Teacher tenure is merely a guarantee that experienced and quality teachers have the right to due process. Despite what the cover headline of Time magazine suggests, teacher tenure is no lifetime job guarantee.
Why is Tenure Still Important?
· Tenure laws recognize that teachers, just like other employees, are sometimes treated unfairly and should be able to defend themselves when an administrator tries to get rid of teachers who advocate for their students and their colleagues. We know from experience that even great teachers can be falsely accused, and that requiring that proven teachers be given the reason for their termination and an opportunity to challenge that reason, provides an important protection to proven educators.
· Time could have, but did not, explain that a recent California Teacher of the Year Shannan Brown testified under oath in the Vergara trial that she relied on her tenure to advocate on behalf of her students against a canned curriculum pushed by district administrators.
· It didn’t describe any of the many cases in which teachers without tenure have had to go to court because they believe they were unfairly fired for:
1. Reporting and testifying in support of students who reported to her that they had been victims of incest;
2. Refusing to give high grades to students who did not earn them despite a principal urging her to “just get drunk and give them all ’A’s’”;
3. Complaining about classroom conditions and pressure to falsify test scores;
4. Selecting controversial books—Fahrenheit 451 and Siddhartha—to teach in high school English;
5. Expressing opposition to the Iraq war in response to a student’s question during a high school class discussion of current events;
6. Expressing concerns about the fairness of cheerleader tryouts;
7. Complaining about discriminatory and illegal conduct toward the school’s special needs students;
8. Complaining about the size of her teaching caseload;
9. Complaining to her supervisors about a lack of equipment and resources for her students;
10. Being replaced (at 47 years old) by a 25 year-old because, as the superintendent put it, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks;
11. Complaining about the school district’s violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
To be sure the description of some of the cases above is drawn from the teachers’ allegations, and there certainly is another side to the story. But if even a fraction of these allegations are correct they demonstrate the continuing need for tenure laws. And needless to say the fact teachers may be able to sue in court to challenge certain discharges, is no substitute for the protection provided by tenure laws. General non-discrimination/retaliation laws do nothing to protect teachers from discharge for challenging their students with high standards and demanding curriculum. Nor do they protect teachers caught in the cross fire of school politics and falsely accused of misconduct.
Even if Tenure is Necessary, Isn’t the Existing Dismissal Process Too Expensive?
Dismissal processes vary from state to state, but overall tenure cases are resolved efficiently (in virtually all cases for a fraction of the cost of full blown court litigation) and most importantly—in the best interests of students. NEA has worked to make the process both efficient and fair. Between 2006 and 2009, 93% were resolved before any hearing was held. We’re proud that in states where the existing dismissal process needed reform, NEA and its affiliates have led and will continue to lead on dismissal process reforms. Since 2010, 31 states have reformed their tenure laws including New Jersey’s 2012 revisions which shortened to just three months’ time the length of contested teacher termination proceedings, see N.J. Stat. Ann. 18A:6-10 et seq., and California’s 2014 revisions to that state’s tenure laws (AB 215) that shortens to seven months’ time the average teacher dismissal process.
Let’s focus on what really matters if we want to help all our students succeed
Rather than focusing on one bad apple, we need to lift the bar for the entire teaching profession. We know as a matter of fact that many individuals who begin teaching careers stay only a few years, and we also know that high turnover in the teaching profession is extraordinarily costly to our students and our schools. For example, one recent report by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future put the cost of teacher turnover at $7 billion a year and estimated that four of every 10 individuals who enter teaching leave the profession within five years.
We know and are proud of the fact that teachers are the most important in-school student learning factor. We hope that the funders of the attacks on teacher tenure will join educators to shape an education reform narrative around lifting the bar for the teaching profession and to ensure that new and experienced teachers have the supports they need to reach every student and make every school a great public school.
