Thursday, April 05, 2012

If Everyone Got "Tenure"

Jake Blumgart:

Most rich, democratic nations, including almost all of the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and Canada provide “just cause” protections for their workers. (Many less wealthy, but still democratic nations eschew employment-at-will, including many Latin American nations and South Africa.) The laws vary, but they generally provide what only a union contract in the United States does: You can’t be fired for any old reason. Many nations even have an independent labor court system to adjudicate such cases. America’s much vaunted Constitution is not so generous.

Surely the best way to close our achievement gap against these countries is to allow our teachers to be fired without cause.

4 comments:

Andrew said...

This isn't quite fair. What is being asked for by many isn't the ability to fire teachers without just cause. It's the ability to fire teachers based on performance OR lay off teachers using some other scheme than last-in first-out.

That still doesn't mean it's right, but the comparison you're drawing doesn't quite cut it.

Tom Hoffman said...

I seem to remember my wife being fired by the City of Providence without cause a year ago. See also Wisconsin, Florida, etc.

doyle said...

Ah, but wasn't your wife responsible for the poverty that overwhelmed Providence?

Criminy, just excuses, excuse, and more excuses.

Fred Mindlin said...

How is tenure any different from "just cause protection"? The whining about tenure is from administrators too lazy to do the involvement and documentation with ineffective teachers which would allow for their dismissal within the tenure system. I don't see much difference between what a teacher's contract gives and what a good union contract in any other industry gives.