Should teachers get tenure?

Question

“Teacher tenure is a policy that restricts the ability to fire teachers, requiring a "just cause" rationale for firing. The individual states each have established their own tenure systems. Tenure provides teachers with protections by making it difficult to fire teachers who earn tenure.” - google.

Answer

I am a teacher and my answer is yes.
Of course there are some teachers who slipped through the cracks/really shouldn’t be teaching anymore. Believe me, it truly frustrates us as well. 
But tenure really acts as a protection for us. If you have a bully administrator who decides they just don’t like you for no good reason, he can’t just get rid of you. There is unfortunately bullying and intimidation by administration to staff as well - not everywhere, not all the time, but I have seen it happen.

Answer

I’m a teacher (I’m tenured). I have mixed feelings on this. 
Pros: in my district we get moved around to different schools ALL the time. In 6 years I’ve had 4 different positions at 3 different schools. They move the administrators too. It gets political and there’s a lot of playing favorites. Tenure affords me some protection. And sometimes you get stuck with an administrator who just doesn’t like you personally so they pick on you professionally. 
Cons: there are some truly AWFUL teachers who don’t deserve the protections of tenure. In my state it is possible to remove them, but without gross misconduct, it takes years. 
I’d give mine up if it meant a more qualified group of teachers overall, but I’m not sure that would happen.

Answer

High school teacher here- just received tenure last year. To be honest, at this point it doesn’t mean too much. Before I was tenured, they could fire me for any reason at any time. Now that I’m tenured, administration would have to show multiple low evaluations to fire me for ineffectiveness or multiple write-ups if trying to fire me for disciplinary reasons (unless it’s an automatic fire able offense like sleeping with a student). 
Really all it does is make it so an administrator has to show just cause for firing someone- which is important in teaching because the most senior teachers also have the highest pay. So when budgets are getting tight, you don’t want them just getting rid of the oldest teacher who makes the most, you want them getting rid of the least effective teacher in the school.
I’m sure that some bad teachers have been able to stick around longer because of tenure, but overall I do think it is important so students aren’t dealing with changing teachers all the time and decisions are made for educational reasons not financial reasons.

Answer

Tenure does not prevent someone from being fired. It prevents them from being fired without just cause. 
We have tenure protections and I’ve been able to let people go because I use thorough documentation and improvement plans that use verifiable and observable action steps from the teacher, coach, and supervisor.  It takes a bit of time, but definitely doesn’t prevent them from being fired and feels very fair.
Admin should step up their game and do a better job of documenting rather than just bagging on teachers.

Answer

I’d like to hear the input of a teacher on this subject. I see pros and cons to it. I’d imagine as a teacher, there’s probably someone each year trying to get you fired. I frequently hear my classmates saying they want to get a teacher fired because the teacher is “unfair” to them. While I think it definitely happens, a lot of students lack accountability. They’re jerks in the classroom and then wonder why the teacher is quick to scold them.

Answer

I don’t really believe in a concept that supports this level of job security in any situation. I do feel like when people are fired a reason should be given and substantiated, even if the reason is budget cuts and not merit based. I don’t think a school board should be required to keep a low performing teacher just because that teacher is a couple years from retirement and doesn’t feel like putting in the same effort anymore. 
I would support teachers being contracted for a number of years and then having to be evaluated and assessed to re-up their contract at the end of that term.. but an infinite tenure doesn’t sound fair to the students.
I know that if a teacher is truly bad they are supposed to be able to be let go even with tenure, but more often then not I hear about teachers on paid leave or reassigned to administrators with less student interaction and responsibility but yet same pay.. our district is actually one where teachers get paid well, so I find that unreasonable

Answer

I think it's unfair. It doesnt really rely on a teacher being better than others just there longer. If money was tight the "better" teacher could be fired. I think it could also encourage teachers to stop trying after they get tenure. I see that a lot in state government (where I work) because its very hard to fire someone after they've been there a while.

Answer

I have mixed feelings because I think it can be both a good and bad thing. I’m not a teacher and don’t have a lot of knowledge on tenure, but when my high school was going through budget cuts, all the good, passionate teachers were let go because they were low on the totem pole. One teacher I had stayed because she had tenure, even though she was crazy, told us all how much she hated kids, and was super racist ( she chased a Mexican kid around the room once after saying “his people” were throwing rocks at her window). We reported her several times but nothing was done. She bragged that she was also part of the teachers union and they couldn’t touch her. So teachers like her? Absolutely not. They should still have yearly evaluations.

Should teachers get tenure?

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