Tenure is used to protect good teachers.

Alter teaching school for over 35 years let me give young people some advice. Don’t become a teacher!  It seems that today’s political leaders choose to blame all of the educational problems, that they have caused, on today’s teachers and their ability to attain Tenure one day.  Let me explain the purpose of tenure for educators. It is intended as a means of due process to protect good teachers from being replaced for partisan reasons. It is simply a Matter of Due Process.

Unlike tenure for university professors, tenure for K-12 teachers does not, in theory, shield them from dismissal. Instead, it's simply a guarantee of due process — that if a teacher is fired, it will be for cause.

The advent of tenure, started with World War I and the suffragist movement, was meant to protect teachers, who, in olden days, were often fired for reasons that had nothing to do with their work, including race. Teachers were often let go when a new political party came to power locally, or if the principal wanted to hand out jobs to his friends or even if a teacher got pregnant.

“These laws were passed in state after state to protect good teachers from arbitrary actions," says Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, which is the country's largest teachers union.

"Due process is necessary in order to avoid the type of abuses of the past," he says. "It's very upsetting that in 2010, under the guise of improving schools, we suddenly get rid of protections from firing teachers for inadequate or wrong reasons.

In Ohio today a teacher needs to prove themselves by doing seven years of good teaching before they have any job security or seniority.  It is the job of Principals to weed out the bad teachers during this time.

As a Union member I have watched abuses by supervisors many times. Favors doled out for kiss asses and plumb assignments for their favorites.

As a retired teacher I can honestly say that it would be a silly to believe that a good teacher, with 20 yrs. experience would, would not be let go in a budget crunch in order to save money. The time to get rid of bad teachers is during that first seven years. The School Board must make sure that Principals do their job.

Let me restate my position. Tenure is to protect good teachers not bad. Every contract has guidelines for getting rid of bad teachers, even tenured ones.

This issue is just political because teachers unions back Democrats in most elections. Merit pay!  If I know the politics in a school district this money would not go to the most deserving.  Schools have problems but getting rid of teacher tenure will only make them worse. I listen to stupid people wine about tenure all the time. Most of these people have no idea what’s going on In the world. They just repeat what they see and hear from the corporate media.

Please! If you have a brain in your heard stay away from the teaching field. All you will get is an ulcer, disrespect, illness, and heart ache.