A parent is a childs first teacher, then parents send their children to schools to allow them to

learn and grow by educators. But, what if those educators had a guaranteed job, no matter
their performance? What if those childrens educators could abuse those rights as teachers
without fear of being terminated? Those are not ifs, they are reality. Teachers receive
tenure, which protects them from being fired for mainly any reason. Tenure is a practice that
negatively effects and hurts children in the classroom and their future, the future of the United
States and the world. It must come to be abolished immediately.
In Jon Huers book, Tenure for Socrates, he argues that tenure has created a kind of
academic stupor in which those who have it no longer live up to the ideals of their profession.
Tenure was originally introduced in 1909 in New Jersey as a way to improve teaching and
education. During that time, political issues, including being a part of a union, were a
punishable effect and tenure was supposed to protect teachers from improper political
influence over their activities both outside and inside the classroom (Kahlenberg). Tenure was
also created to ensure teachers were not being discriminated based on ones gender, ethnicity,
or religion. But, nowadays, discrimination laws are in place for all people in all jobs. Tenures
protection from being fired ill-heartedly due to political influence is now out of date and mainly
protects teachers from being fired due to lack of performance or inappropriate behavior.
Achieving tenure does not require much. The approval and procedure to achieve tenure
is very quick and minimal. The average time it takes to attain tenure in the United States is
three years; some areas of the country are as low as one year (Length of Time Before Tenure
Kicks In). One to three years is not nearly enough time to judge if a teacher is so tremendously

effective in the classroom that they deserve a position for life. Within those first few years,
teachers are still learning the way of the classroom and not even close to perfecting their craft.
If teachers are awarded tenure too early on in their careers, then go and do something or
exhibit poor behavior, the education system is in trouble. Why? Because if a teacher who is
tenured is put up to be fired must go through a long and costly process. In the teachers
contract, it states that if their job is up for dismal they are allowed due process. This process is
dragged out and because it is dragged out the cost of the education systems lawyers expenses
are extremely high.
Between the years of 2007 and 2010, 88 out of 80,000 teachers were fired in New York
City and outside of the New York City area, between 2006 and 2011, 32 out of 132,000. That is
.11 percent of teachers in New York City and .002 percent of teachers in other parts of New
York. Someone might wonder what kind of effect the inability to fire ill equipped educators has
on their children. The answer is depressing. In Chicago, only 28.5 percent of 11th graders met
or exceeded standardized test expectations. There is also only one in four students that
graduate and are able to read and do math and this is because, like New York, only .01 percent
of teachers were fired based on performance-related reasons. In New Jersey, between the
2001 and 2002, and the 2004 and 2005 school years, Newark's graduation rate was a 30.6
percent. This is because in ten years, only about 47 out of 100,000 teachers were actually
terminated from New Jersey's schools ("Tenure Protects High School Teachers Who Should Be
Fired").
There have been hundreds of reports and complaints about teachers behaving
inappropriately with and around students. When a situation like this comes about within a

school, the principal and boards hands are tied. If the teacher is tenured, the chance of
immediate action is slow because of the processes and expenses it takes to fire such teacher.
To avoid the lengthy process and the hefty expenses, school choose one of three options: 1) a
paid suspension 2) required to take a class and/or pay a fine 3) move to the Rubber Room.
The Rubber Room is where teachers charged with incompetence--or worse--can spend years
doing nothing, a paid internal exile created by union contracts that make teachers nearly
impossible to fire (Cooper). In the Rubber Room, teachers clock in and out as if they were
working a normal day in the classroom. The teachers still get paid their normal salary, accrue a
pension, earn days off, have the same vacation as all other teachers, and gain the same
benefits. In a New York Post article, by Susan Edelman and Michael Gartland, examples were
given of New York educators who acted inappropriately, yet were not fired, only punished in a
minimum way. One such example, which became nerve wracking, was about a teacher / swim
coach who would comment on his young female swimmers pubic hair. When complaints were
made, the teacher was not fired. He was required to take a sexual harassment class and pay a
$5,000 fine. He was allowed to continue teaching and coaching.
Many that are pro-tenure argue that it protects teachers from being fired due to
attempting new teaching techniques and other reasons that should not be in consideration for
termination. Even though they have points, tenure does more harm than good. If the teaching
techniques continuously fail and the students education and knowledge are not living up to
standards, then the teacher should be fired for lack of performance in the classroom. If an older
teacher who is unable to keep up with the students anymore is falling behind, the school
system cannot hire a new fresh teacher because the older teacher is tenured.

Students are the future of our country and the world. If they are being cheated out of an
education by the teachers and school system, then the school system and teachers are cheating
the future of our country and world of prosperity. Tenure is halting the potential of students,
your children. If students are not receiving the education they deserve their futures will be
greatly affected. No parent wants to see their child fail in their future.

Work Cited
Cooper, Rand Richards. "Disaster movies: 'Waiting for 'Superman'' & 'Inside Job'." Commonweal
138.1 (2011): 20+. Academic OneFile. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.

Edelman, Susan, and Michael Gartland. "It's Nearly Impossible to Fire Tenured Teachers." New
York Post, 14 June 2014. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.

Huer, Jon. Tenure for Socrates: A Study in the Betrayal of the American Professor. New York:
Bergin & Garvey, 1991. Print.

Kahlenberg, Richard D. "Teacher tenure has a long history and, hopefully, a future." Phi Delta
Kappan 97.6 (2016): 16. Academic OneFile. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.

"Length of Time Before Tenure Kicks In" ProCon.org, 7 June 2016. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.

"Tenure Protects High School Teachers Who Should Be Fired." Teachers and Ethics. Ed. Noah
Berlatsky. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt.
from "Protecting Bad Teachers." Teachersunionexposed.com. Opposing Viewpoints in
Context. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.