This morning Charlotte pointed to a case of how teacher tenure impacts school personnel decisions. Once a teacher has tenure they are pretty near impossible to fire, regardless of their performance level. So in the case of D.C. the city targeted new hires who hadn’t received tenure yet. As Charlotte pointed out, that didn’t work out so well in D.C. in this particular instance.
But there is some reason to be optimistic going forward. In recent weeks, several states have signaled that they are ready and willing to take on teacher tenure laws. Governors in Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Nevada, and New Jersey have called for the elimination of tenure. It’s nice to see some movement in this direction. After all, this isn’t exactly rocket science: good teachers deserve our respect and adoration while bad teachers have no place in the classroom. If current laws don’t allow personnel decisions to be based on that simple point, then it’s great that so many states are considering reform.