Teacher tenure is a form of job protection that allows public school teachers to be dismissed only for specific reasons after a certain number of years on the job. While initially intended to protect teachers from arbitrary firing, tenure is now criticized for making it too difficult and costly to remove underperforming teachers. Data shows that teachers have much stronger job security than other professionals like doctors and lawyers. The document argues that tenure should be reformed or eliminated because it often keeps poorly performing teachers in the classroom, hindering students' education, when the primary focus should be on students.

1. Analyze & Persuade
1) In the education world, we hear about “tenure” all the time. If that is such a controversial term,
what exactly is it, and why is it such a problem?
2) Teacher tenure is a form of job protection that public school teachers can receive after 1-7 years
of employment.
3) Prior to tenure, teachers could be dismissed for many non-work related reasons, for example
a. New political party took place
b. Female teachers got pregnant or wore pants
c. Nepetism – favoritism of a relative over someone with merit.
4) What started off as a well-intentioned concept quickly turned into abuse of the system
a. In 2008, a reported 2.3 million teachers had tenure.
5) Part of the reason there is job security for teachers is because it is too expensive and too time
consuming to fire them.
a. Teachers often become complacent because they are unlikely to lose their jobs.
6) Tenure is keeping poorly performing teachers in the system teaching your children terribly,
simply because it costs more to get rid of them.
7) In NY
a. Up until June 28, 2010 there was a “rubber room” where teachers who were accused of
underperforming were kept and paid to do nothing, as long as they weren’t teaching,
because they were tenured.
8) Why do we need tenure?
9) In the documentary “waiting for Superman,” they take a look at other professions…
,’ one out of every 57 doctors loses his or her license to practice medicine.
a. One out of every 97 lawyers loses their license to practice law.
b. In many major cities, only one out of 1000 teachers is fired for performancerelated reasons.
c. Why should a teacher be protected if they are no longer performing?
10) Ultimately, if you want to be a teacher you must be willing and wanting to enhance a
student’s educational experience. Sadly, tenure has made education no longer about the
student but rather about the teachers.
11) Tenure keeps teachers in the system who may have lost their motivation to be a teacher.
This can only hinder the students who wind up in their class
12) One of the arguments for tenure is that teachers can work better without the constant fear
of losing their jobs, as there is less stress and anxiety placed on them
a. My argument against that is with that kind of logic, then there should be tenure
for doctors and lawyers as well..that way if a Surgeon isn’t effective at his job,
there will be less stress about losing his job if he kills somebody.

2. 13) Ultimately the education of the student needs to be the main consideration instead of
what the compensation or perks of being a teacher are. If you are in this profession for
extrinsic rewards you are in the wrong field of work. The State of Illinois Educator Code
of Ethics states that your first responsibility is to the students.
14) Tenure needs to be exclusive, not to the select 2.3 million people, or completely done
away with. As we have seen by “rubber rooms” and underperforming teachers in the
public school systems, there is clearly a problem with promising jobs to teachers for any
amount of time. They need to be fired as their performance sees fit, and the students
need to be the number one priority as they are the ones who will be running this world
one day.