As Mark Twain might have put it, everybody talks about tenure reform, but nobody does anything about it. Periodically school reformers issue earnest reports showing that tenure is treated as an entitlement and serves as an obstacle to excellence. Advocates make their voices heard, the teachers’ union waxes indignant, and then nothing happens.
Until now, that is.
Mayor Bloomberg announced the other day that tenure was given to only 58 percent of teachers who were eligible for it at the end of the 2010-11 academic year. That figure used to be nearly 100 percent—basically, teachers with three years on the job and a measurable pulse received a job for life. And you thought Supreme Court justices had it easy! Most of them are middle-aged by the time the president summons them to the nation’s highest court. Teachers, on the other hand, generally are in their 20s, just starting out on their careers, when they come up for tenure.
Mr. Bloomberg has been a vocal critic of tenure as an entitlement and has acted accordingly. Referring to state laws governing how tenure should be awarded, the mayor said, “We’ve turned what had been a joke interpretation of the state law to make it something that you have to work hard [and] earn ….”
That may not seem like a revolutionary idea, but it is. Five years ago, some 99 percent of third-year teachers received tenure. Ninety-nine percent! While non-teachers cannot fully appreciate the effort, dedication, and imagination it takes to inspire young people in the classroom, it seems hard to believe that nearly all teachers deserve lifetime appointments after just three years on the job.
Of those who did not receive tenure this year, 39 percent will get another chance after further reviews and more experience in the classroom. Three percent were denied tenure.
Tenure must be a reward for exceptional performance, not an entitlement handed out to those who show up and muddle through. Critics have been making that case for years. But now Mr. Bloomberg is doing something about it.
That’s a good thing—for students, parents, and for those exceptional teachers who now will earn, rather than simply receive, tenure.
