Tenure Protects the Good Teachers

As an educator in the public school system over the past 28 years, I have always read with interest the opinions concerning education on the pages of your newspaper. And when a parent of students at my school came forward to express his concerns, as did Bruce Crawford in “Vouching for the Importance to All of Public Education,” (Orange County Voices, March 3), I felt moved to echo many of his thoughts.

I felt pride when he stated that he is “happy with the education they [his children] are receiving,” both at my school, Fountain Valley High, and Kazuo Masuda Middle School. I agreed wholeheartedly with his statement that “truly great things could happen if we could free the reins of our teachers and administrators.”

The subject of tenure is a touchy one for us teachers. It is on this subject that I would hope that Crawford would take a second look before passing judgment. Yes, tenure does protect the less productive teachers, but it also protects the best ones. Without it, the involved parents he so rightly praises would spend time coming to the defense of excellent teachers who may occasionally come in conflict with vindictive or politically motivated administrators or boards of trustees with the power to terminate employment.

The corporate world offers no job security, but the chance for advancement, significant pay increases, and the right to change employers and market one’s skills justifies such an environment.

Teachers, on the other hand, enter a profession that offers a relatively stagnant pay structure after 10 years of service, forced unemployment for 15 weeks a year, and a probable pay cut if they choose to move to another school district. The job security that tenure offers serves as the trade-off for such conditions.

The answer is not to eliminate tenure, but to find ways to encourage administrators and teachers’ bargaining units to work together to identify the weaker teachers and help them to improve their effectiveness.

DAVID TUTTLE

Mission Viejo