Taking Aim at Tenure

I first read about Michelle Rhee a while ago when she was first being considered for the chancellor position in public schools.  At the time, the brouhaha was over whether or not an Asian woman should be considered for a position that oversees schools that have large African American populations, but because she had ample support, she was able to overcome.

Now, she’s in the news again.  Michelle Rhee is trying to minimize tenure for teachers in her region by offering two new compensation plans which take teachers off the tenure track.  The idea is that tenure makes it hard for administrators to fire bad teachers, and she says that eliminating tenure will make it easier to make room for good teachers.  In exchange, good teachers would get huge bumps in salary, sometimes as much as $40,000 more.

This is huge.  Americans are always complaining how teachers are underpaid in America.  Here is a chance to bump that pay up so that our schools attract the best and brightest.  Check this out:

Maggie Slye, 31, a former teacher in Teach for America who is a literacy coach in a Washington elementary school, said she liked Ms. Rhee’s proposal because her salary would rise to $90,000 from $61,000 under the green plan.

Ms. Slye would be at the upper end of the pay spectrum with this change.  Not bad for a 31 year old.  It would be on par with other high end jobs like engineers and accountants.

Some oppose it:

By contrast, Kerry Sylvia, 38, said she opposed Ms. Rhee’s proposal.

Although she is an award-winning world history teacher and works long hours to help students at her high school improve, Ms. Sylvia said that without tenure she would nevertheless feel vulnerable to arbitrary firing because she has publicly opposed some Rhee initiatives and speaks out about things like her school’s decrepit heating system.

I can see Ms. Sylvia’s fear, but come on–office politics is something that most of us go through.  She needs to get used to it.  It makes the job more unpleasant, but it’s a fact of life.  I’m willing to support teachers feeling a bit more vulnerable if it will create better instruction for kids.

Let me make just one last point: there are some government jobs that I think should be protected.  Government inspectors, for example, should get good job protection (except in the obvious case of bribery or other illegal activities.).  Police officers should be relatively safe from downsizing and politics, also excluding illegal activity.  These jobs require skill, but they don’t necessarily require people to be super-proactive, except in enforcing laws and codes.  But teachers?  We need the best and brightest among the proactive in those professions, people who are motivated by something other than job security.  I think the best way to get that is to make the profession more competitive.

Update: A cursory look at the Times reader commentary shows some good support for Ms. Rhee.  (Of course, this could change as more and more people leave comments.)

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