Assault on Tenure in D.C. Schools Goes Too Far

I disagree with your position on Rhee's plan. I taught in DCPS for two years. I was a member of the Teach for America Corp of 05 and a Georgetown alum. Teacher unions have a very hard grip on the education system here in DC. There are many outstanding teachers but there is a strong contingency of ineffective ones that are costing DCPS a lot of money, and most importantly, wasting precious teaching time. I think unions are an impediment in this specific situation and our kids are suffering. I've seen tenured health teachers sit around and show movies to their students instead of teaching them about safe sex, warning them about STDs and providing them much needed information. When principals try to crack down, they are resisted by union leaders. This needs to change! It affects no one more than good teachers to have bad teachers milking the system and wasting time.

Michelle Rhee needs to turn this place around. If your mom doesn't want to participate in the green plan, have her take the red plan and keep her tenure. If she's a really good teacher, I'm sure she'll be able to keep her job.

My father has worked trielessly as a salesman of hospital supplies. He shows up at work every day. He learns the difference between the various products and how they are used to save lives. He has done so for thirty five years.

But my father has never had to protection of a union for one simple reason -- he is a professional.

Because he is a professional, he understands that the moment he stops doing a good job is the moment he stops having a job.

Why shouldn't teachers (and your mother) be held to the same standard as other professionals (including my father).

So long as she is not as lazy and apethatic as the dozens of teachers I've had to endure, her job will be secure.

Saxon Gillis

I'm with Saxon on this one. Tenure is such a crock. Do an adequate job for a few years and then you're at that job for as long as you want so long as you don't commit a major mistake (not including being a bad teacher). The set of balls on teachers' unions is mind boggling. They stretch the notion of job security beyond its logical breaking point. Can you imagine if other jobs worked this way? It's quite comical to do so. Well, Bob, you got that report in late and it cost us the $5 million contract, but you've been here for ten years haven't sexually harassed any of the secretaries, so you can stay on board. Job security should be based on performance, not whether you've been occupying the same chair for a long time.

Subjecting children to less than qualified teachers does them a great disservice. Some children have no choice but to attend public school. As long as the hiring and retaining of teachers is not ALWAYS merit-based, we are failing those kids.