Tenure Protection for the Incompetent Teachers Going Away?

By David L. Goetsch July 11, 2014

I have now spent 38 years in higher education as a professor, administrator, and now adjunct professor. During this time I have come to believe that education reform will never work unless the concept of teacher tenure is eliminated. Tenure is a concept that was originally developed to protect the academic freedom of teachers. The idea was to protect teachers who held controversial views from being fired for exercising their right to free speech and, by so doing, to ensure that students would be exposed to a variety of different perspectives as part of their education.

For the purpose of this column, I will put aside the sad fact that academic freedom has morphed into a concept in which teachers and students may express their views on any subject as long as their views toe the line of liberal orthodoxy. In a typical public school, college, or university, the only point of view students can expect to consistently hear is the liberal point of view. Liberals control education in America and use that control to, in turn, control the thinking of students. This is a subject I have written on extensively at this site and, along with my colleague Archie Jones, have authored a book on (Liberal Tyranny in Higher Education). But liberal tyranny in education is grist for another mill. The focus of this column is teacher tenure and the positive effect eliminating it could have on education in America…..To Read More…..