Teacher Tenure System

Introduction

Teacher tenure is the increasingly controversial form of job protection that public school teachers in all states receive after 1-7 years on the job. As of 2008, 2.3 million teachers have tenure. Tenure protects teachers from being fired for personal, political, or other non-work related reasons (Goonen & Blechman, pp 45 - 61). Before tenure, teachers could be dismissed when a new political party took power or a principal wanted to make room to hire his friends. Women were dismissed for getting married, becoming pregnant, wearing pants, or being out too late in the evenings. However, it creates complacency ...