New Jersey governor: “The time to eliminate teacher tenure is now.”

[alp227]

From a New York Times analysis of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's State of the State address from Tuesday "Governor Thrusts New Jersey to Fore of an Education Fight":

Mr. Christie, in the past, has proposed taking tenure away from ineffective teachers. But on Tuesday he called for abolishing it, saying “the time to eliminate teacher tenure is now.”

During an interview at The New York Times on Wednesday, Mr. Christie elaborated on his education proposals, saying he is focusing on teachers because “the most important thing for learning is the quality of the teacher standing in front of the classroom.”

“All the rest of the stuff helps, enhances the process,” he said. “Parental involvement, the atmosphere in the school, the level of technology, all the rest of that enhances it. But if you don’t have a good teacher in front of the classroom, all the rest of that stuff is a sideshow.”

He said it might be possible to achieve change without ending tenure. He said teachers could be given five-year contracts. “And at the end of five years, you know, up or down, are you kept or aren’t you, based on a merit decision,” he said.

Mr. Christie already has fans, both in New Jersey and in education circles across the country. Michelle Rhee, the former Washington schools chancellor, who sat beside Mr. Christie’s wife during Tuesday’s speech in Trenton, has committed her new organization, StudentsFirst, to providing policy support for Mr. Christie’s education initiatives. “I think it’s incredibly courageous of the governor to take these issues on,” Ms. Rhee said Wednesday. “These are ones that have long been considered sacred cows.”

[Hannah Bell]

1. more propaganda from the masters of the universe

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Sleep, liberals, in heavenly peace.

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070131061826AAL81wA

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. LOL!

[adnelson60087]

4. Did any of us think we'd live long enough to see Teachers as the villians

of the American Public Educational System? I never did.

[HockeyMom]

5. For Profit Education

and children as a PRODUCT. The almighty $$$$$$$'s. That is these people's god.

[tortoise1956]

6. At the risk of being flamed, I have to ask

Why all teachers should necessarily be given tenure simply because they have worked for a given number of years. My work experience is in electronics and engineering, so I don't have the perspective that teachers do. However, we seem to be able to keep a solid work force at my company without the guarantee of tenure. Would someone please detail the arguments for granting tenure to all teachers, and why teaching needs that level of protection?

And before anyone jumps down my throat, this is an honest request for information. I am not advocating arbitrarily firing all teachers that aren't performing at the same level as Jaime Escalante. Please fill me in on why this is the right thing to do.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Tenure is protection from the politics of education

As long as school boards are citizens - usually disgruntled parents - with NO leadership experience, teachers need tenure.

Tenure is also NOT a guarantee of a job for life. It is merely due process. It's a right every employee should have. That's what we should be asking - why don't all workers have tenure? Instead we are trying to take it away from teachers. It's just insane. But it's part of the war on workers.

Sigh.

[tortoise1956]

8. Thank you for the reasoned response -

I learned something new. I had always assumed that tenure for K-12 teachers was basically the same as higher learning. However, after reading your reply I did some basic research (probably shoulda done that first, eh?) to better understand the term.

So, tenure for K-12 is more accurately a means of requiring a process to be followed before terminating someone, which hopefully would take politics and personal dislikes out of the process, correct?