Taking On Tenure

With the prospect of deep cutbacks in federal discretionary spending, and state budgets across the nation foundering in red ink, public sector labor unions are under unprecedented pressure for concessions, not only on pay and benefits, but on work rules and even the right to bargain collectively. Nowhere is the pressure felt more keenly than at the low end of the revenue chain, the local budget. And when the money runs out, it seems to run out first where it is spent the fastest — in the local schools. Consequently, teacher layoffs are in the offing this year in those districts were taxpayer resistance to spending is the greatest, and once again people are sharpening their arguments against teacher tenure.

Tenure, which extends job protections to educators in Connecticut after three years employment (two years for tenured teachers transferring from other districts), seems like an extravagant perquisite to those working in the private sector without similar job guarantees. In Connecticut, tenured teachers must grossly neglect their duties, commit a crime involving moral turpitude, or any similar due and sufficient cause before they can be fired. The evaluation and dismissal process, which involves the union, the school board, school administrators, and even the judicial system, can literally take years of time and expense. So when teachers are laid off because there is not enough money to pay them, the tenure system effectively dictates that within the pool of teachers with required certification the last hired will be the first fired — a system that makes some school districts more of a gerontocracy than meritocracy.

The tenure movement in this country grew out of the broader labor struggles of the 19th Century, first finding its way into law early in the 20th Century as a way to protect academic freedoms in the face of meddling parents and administrators intent on shaping lesson plans and implementing personal agendas in the classrooms. At the time, female teachers were still getting fired for getting married or pregnant. With an elaborate architecture of workplace and civil rights protections now in place for all workers, the original reasons for tenure may have lost their relevance, especially when viewed through the lens of the current effects of tenure.

Governor Dannel P. Malloy has promised legislation to give school districts the flexibility they need to keep talented new teachers by eliminating job longevity as the sole or preeminent criterion for deciding who stays and who goes in the face of forced layoffs. Unfortunately, late last month the legislative Education Committee in Hartford opted to deny local school districts that flexibility until the state develops a model teacher evaluation process, projected for implementation in July 2013. Some lawmakers are now talking about advancing that deadline a year to 2012. But as municipalities head into a budget season fraught with so many political and fiscal uncertainties, the consequences of even a delay of one year will have an impact on the quality of public education in Connecticut far into the future. Local school boards and administrators know who the best teachers are. They need the authority now to assure they stay in the classrooms where they belong.