The inane decision by a California judge to say tenure for teachers is unconstitutional in that state has not even been implemented, pending a very winnable appeal, but it has received widespread media attention and now a NY copycat suit.
However, why not the same coverage for a recent judicial decision in the more conservative state of North Carolina affirming tenure? This more rational judge would not permit the State Legislature to diminish teacher due process rights, which is all that tenure for K-12 teachers really is.
The NC Legislature last week even dropped a proposal to tie teacher pay raises to voluntarily surrendering tenure.
Check out this editorial from the News and Observer in Raleigh. The problem throughout the country is not firing teachers, it's teachers leaving on our own. This is the line from Raleigh that caught my eye:
"...it is irresponsible lawmakers, not incompetent teachers, who must be held more accountable."
Summing it all up perfectly is our friend Arthur Goldstein in the Daily News. Everyone should read his defense of tenure from Wednesday's newspaper to see how it protects good teachers.
See also Norm Scott in the Indypendent.
And thanks to Reality Based Educator, here are two more pieces defending tenure from this past week over at Salon.
2 comments:
Salon published two interesting pieces on tenure in the last week:
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/16/tenure_haters_big_delusion_why_campbell_brown_has_teaching_all_wrong/
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/14/tenure_is_not_the_problem_debunking_education_reform_myths_and_providing_a_real_path_forward/
Thanks.
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