Count Kansas City Star political columnist Steve Kraske as another of those journalists who has no understanding of the issue of teacher tenure.
In his Sunday column, Kraske made the following assertion:
In New Jersey now, under its new reform, teachers willhave to wait four years, instead of three to gain tenure, and they will have to earn it by performing well. They can face firing if they get poor evaluations.
Said one New Jersey Democratic legislator: “We can’t have the bad teachers in the schools anymore. One bad teacher is one bad teacher too many.”
That differs from Missouri and Kansas, where firing a tenured teacher with “due process” is a virtual impossibility.
All tenure provides for teachers is a chance for a hearing and unless the superintendent is on the way out the door, the board is going to go along with his or her wishes. And that is only with the cases that go that far. Tenured teachers are fired far more often than tenure opponents will admit and it is virtually impossible to come up with anything other than anecdotal evidence to show it. Bad teachers can be removed. Tenure merely offers a chance for good teachers to hold on to their jobs.
Steve Kraske needs an education on education.
2 comments:
What makes the New Jersey legislator think that administrators are infallible. Isn't it just as appropriate to think that certified teachers are infallible. Of course, neither is the case. That's why the N.J. legislator exhibits stupidity in assuming that administrators are infallible. His stupidity is compounded by the statement that in Missouri, it is almost impossible to fire a tenured teacher. Tenured teachers in MO have been and can be dismissed. When an administrator complains about difficulty in a tenured teacher dismissal, he is complaining about having to do his job.
Thanks for the well reasoned explanation of how tenure actually works in the real world. Just one correction - the KC Star article was written by Steve Rose, rather than Steve Kraske. That makes sense, since Kraske generally practices good journalism.
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