Tenure In Public Schools

By now, you should know that it is very difficult and costly to fire a teacher who has attained tenure status at a school. Not only does it affect the school’s overall performance, it also affects the students academically and psychologically. As of January of this year, education officials of Alabama have released a list of seventy-five schools, mostly high schools, are considered failing (Crain 1). For those who support tenure for teachers claim that it is necessary for them. It guarantees their job and protects teachers from being fired for personal, political or other non-work related reasons. Teachers feel secure by having tenure which allows them to advocate on the behalf of students and openly disagree with district administrators. It …show more content…
Tenure attracts many teachers to the profession due to the promise of having a secure and stable job. A teacher in Indiana, where there isn’t tenure, was supposedly fired due to budget cuts. However, it was an open secret going around that her administrator wanted to open up the position to hire a friend. Tenure protects teachers from being fired for a “just cause” reason. It also prevents schools from firing experienced teachers to hire less experienced and less expensive teachers. “It’s nice to have that sense of security when you leave for the summer to know that you have a job when school starts again” Ms. Dinh explains about tenure (Ancheta 5). There is a lot of pressure on teachers without tenure. They are constantly evaluated all the time on their performance and how effective they can be. “Tenure gives the teacher confidence in what they are doing” (Ancheta 6). Mr. Griffin of Garden Grove High School says “Tenure is like a validation that my performance is doing well and also gives you more freedom as teacher to use new strategies that you want to employ to become a better teacher” (Ancheta 6). Tenure encourages school administrators to carefully select qualified and effective teachers for the job. Once granted tenure, teachers don’t have to be in constant fear of losing employment anymore, which will drive their focus more on providing the best education for their students. Some teachers may feel they need to teach the same lessons and stick to their usual guidelines for the class. Tenure guarantees innovation in the classroom for the teacher. If teachers are afraid of losing their job, they are not going to bring or try new, innovated ways to teach the