Public Comment

There seems to be a growing consensus about education reform in this country, at least a consensus about how we have a serious problem. Unfortunately, education is a complex affair, made up of many components. Many of the diverse small problems that make up the large one require leadership skills, buy-in from a diverse group of stakeholders and revised curriculums. There is, however, one area that isn't complex and would go a long way toward true reform, even though it would be hard to implement.

Tenure is a relic from long ago, perhaps a good idea 100 years ago, but a disaster now. Eliminate tenure and start improving education immediately. 

What is gained with tenure. Excellent teachers aren't going to lose their jobs, and hiring new teachers to replace higher paid older teachers wouldn't even be an issue if teachers were paid for how well they teach, not for how many years they sat in a chair in front of a class. 

In California we decided that we wouldn't even give our elected representatives a chance at tenure when we passed term limits. Do we really believe a group of people who sit around in eternal political gridlock are more deserving to be replace for poor performance than the people who make the difference between our children growing up to be successes or failures? And that is the issue, our children's futures. 

Does anyone really believe that teachers are interchangeable, like those fast food workers that one day wait the counter, the next day work the fries? Do teachers who pass out work sheets deserve the same pay as someone who is actively teaching and continually checking for understanding? What about the teachers who opt for fun activities and cultural enrichment rather than teaching students to read and compute? 

I have substituted in a number of classes over the years, and I can see a difference. In some classes, the teacher has provided a rich set of learning activities for the students, and the class understands the expectations. In classes like that, I've worked for my pay. I've babysat in other classes, with 1 hour, 45 minute blocks, where the assignment was a one page worksheet, something I could do in 20 minutes, the better students in 30 and the slackers in well under an hour. The rest of the interminably long block is spent chatting, texting, playing games on their phones or actually napping. These kids are bored, and it's no wonder many drop out, opting for a minimum wage job that at least give them a small monetary feedback. 

The teachers who will yell the loudest about this suggestion aren't the ones who would be retained and earn a higher wage. Rather it will be the people who, without tenure to protect them, would be out on the street, looking for another job. 

Eliminate poorly performing teachers, pay the good ones more money, hire support staff to do the non teaching, routine paper and phone work, and we will start turning out graduates ready to take on the demanding work of the 21st century. The alternative is stagnation. 

--Meade Fischer  

Meade, 

I appreciate many things you write and discuss, but I am sorry to see that you have joined the no-tenure crowd. You and I have been in education a long time, I as teacher and principal and you as a substitute teacher. When I retired my staff was mostly a cohesive and cooperative group, which had chosen a certain path to increase effectiveness in the classroom by continuing to look at successful strategies. 

For many years the workshops on reading by the California Reading and Literature Project had supported a major change in my school. Curriculum-oriented assessments (No, not the annual testing battery) gave teachers immediate feedback on each student's progress. Common planning time was often used by teachers to focus on particular results from those assessments. During my last year at the school, teachers worked with facilitators on LUCI math with good results. And, they had requested and were ready to embark on a year-long training and implementation of Step-Up-To-Writing. In other words, teachers actively participated and modeled for each other successful strategies. Unfortunately, when I left, the district had other plans and basically destroyed the collaborative efforts at the school and within a year or two many staff members had disappeared and moved to other schools or positions. 

No, it is not the tenured teachers that were the problem, not even the non-effective ones. There are too many administrators and legislators who think they know best. My experience says with leadership and commonly accepted and ongoing professional development, teachers DO know and choose the best. 

So, no I do not agree with you that removing tenure will immediately improve education, 

-- Mathilde Rand