Is teacher tenure still necessary? Yes.

An increasingly controversial form of job protection for public school teachers is tenure. Many people argue that not only does it protect teachers from being fired for personal or political reasons, but it also prevents experienced teachers from being fired to be replaced by less expensive, less experienced new teachers.

Before the introduction of teacher tenure, teachers were often fired for non-work related reasons. Teachers were often dismissed if a new political party took power or if a principal or administrator wanted to give jobs to his friends and family.

Tenure is granted to teachers after three years of working hard and proving the potential they have. Everyone is needed for some kind of recognition and every teacher who has proven themselves should be rewarded with tenure. Tenure encourages teachers to perform at a higher quality knowing that they will not easily lose their jobs.

In K-12, tenure is often not earned but given to anyone. Even if all teachers are offered the opportunity to have tenure doesn’t mean they all should be given it. Many argue whether if tenure is protecting the good or the bad.

Dismissals should be job related. The problem many see is that there are so many legal hurdles involved in firing a teacher with tenure that it becomes a shield against firing the worst of teachers. You continue to hear stories about how favoritism is alive and well in public schools.

If we used tenure to sweep out the bad and as a reward to keep the good, we wouldn’t have to worry about protecting the wrong teachers. So it is fair to say that, tenure should be available for teachers but not all teachers should be granted tenure after three years.