Educator Tenure

Teaching unions are very strong in the United States. A recent New York Times article stated that nearly one in a hundred doctors and lawyers lose their license. Educators, however, lose their certification at a rate just a bit higher. One in 2,500 teachers suffers these consequences. Teachers, arguably just as important as a doctor in the development of a child's life, are rarely fired because of the lack of ability to produce results or for failing to accomplish goals. Why are doctors and lawyers, who grow through a seemingly infinite amount of education, subject to tougher standards than educators, the foundation of our school system in this nation? Rhetorically I ask this, although unions are the answer.

I don't have a problem with unions. There are a lot of shady business dealers out there (see: Enron, Worldcom, Citigroup) and unions help to protect workers' jobs. They generally do a great service to employees in their field. Unfortunately, the teacher's union is very strong, and it leads to unsatisfactory performance by some members. Obviously the public education sector in the United States is not doing too great. Our children do not rank in the best of any content area of developed nations in this world. This is abhorrent in a country that should be leading the revolution, and one that spurned the industrial and technological revolutions.

Teachers definitely have a tough job, and sometimes they just have bad students. Its hard to argue that even a great teacher can get through to the worst student. This just isn't pragmatic. But, this is often not the case. After three years a teacher is granted tenure generally and their job is theirs to really screw up and lose. Tenure should be merit-based. A teacher's performance, not their seniority, should reflet their pay scale. We cannot continue to pay and keep teachers who are simply not doing a good job. In New York City alone, teachers who underperform or are under a subpoena, cost the city $65 million a year to pay these teachers not to teach essentially. We need to develop a method of evaluating and observing teachers, and by the rate at which their students succeed. This is what pay should be based off of, inherently this is the smartest and most ethical (to our students, society, and fellow educators) procedure for which to pay educators.