“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful.”
This quote, owing to George Orwell, befits the group that is challenging California’s
teacher tenure laws (the group is called “Students Matter”). Their main argument: teacher
tenure puts poor and minority students at a disproportionately greater risk of
being taught by less effective instructors. The lawsuit was successful at
trial, but was reversed on appeal yesterday.
Sure, students matter— greatly. But why blame tenured teachers for poor outcomes when they must deal
with the fallout of a national 50% divorce rate, nightly shootings in low income
neighborhoods, after-school hours filled with mindless TV watching, lead in water, sugary diets, pre-pubescent sexual behavior—not to
mention mind-numbing testing and paperwork that tend to interfere with teaching?
If the lawsuit is
successful and tenure is abolished, the occasional incompetent teacher will be
fired—but many more good teachers will leave a profession that is shown little
respect by the public and many parents. Turning teaching into a high-turnover
profession is not the answer.
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