CB> Reposted with the permission of the American Federation of Teachers
CB> by Albert Shanker
CB> The Push Against Tenure
CB>      First, though, "20/20" did not even get the facts right.  During 
CB> a 
CB> parade of horrors, it said that a Michigan school was "unable to 
CB> dismiss a 
CB> teacher who threatened a third-grade student with a knife" and 
CB> implied that
CB> the teacher got away without punishment. What really happened? 
CB> According to
CB> the Michigan Department of Education (_Education Week_, Letters, June 
CB> 19, 
CB> 1996), the threat was an unfortunate joke, and the tenure commission 
CB> decided not to fire the teacher because it weighed his error in 
CB> judgment 
CB> against a 22-year record of  "effective" teaching. 
    If a HS senior made the same "joke", would he be allowed to avoid 
expulsion from the public schools on the basis of "weighing" his error 
against a 12-year record of good behavior?
    No job but public school teaching allows employees to avoid firing for 
gross misbehavior just on the grounds of past good behavior.  (Are those 
guilty of sexual harassment allowed to balance off their misdeeds against 
their good job performance otherwise?)
CB> suspended 
CB> him for two years without pay. 
    How much of a "punishment" is that?  He can get a manufacturing job 
during those two years that will pay more, and come back to teaching in two 
years richer than otherwise.
CB>      As for hiring and retaining mediocre or incompetent teachers, 
CB> the 
CB> principals and the school boards are the main culprits here. 
    Not in North Carolina.  Read "Bd. of Education vs. Thompson", the case 
showing how near-impossible it is for administrators and boards to fire 
anyone.
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