VOL. XIII, NO. 11
APRIL 14, 1972

Editorial
Tenure Bars Future Of Effective Education
Many teachers from the Maine schools have been cut for the next school year. Class size will be increased and class choice will be decreased. Several people might say that the taxpayers by voting down the recent school referendum also decreased the quality of their own educational system.

The vetoing of the referendum has opened our eyes to a flaw in the educational system, which is referred to as the tenure rule. Certainly the faculty had to be reduced as a result of the referendum defeat, but the criteria for this judgment (of who should go and who should stay) should have been the effectiveness of the teacher's classroom manner and competence rather than their ability to obtain tenure.

Let's take a short look at the reason for tenure in the first place. Administrators seeking a low-cost educational system would drop a teacher after he had been with a school long enough to earn a fairly high salary. Even if the teacher was very effective in his field, he would be replaced by a cheaper and perhaps inferior new teacher. To guard against this unfair job placement tenure was set up. It ensured teachers would only be fired under an abnormal situation; e.g., a morals charge.
 Before the tenure rule, teachers were taken advantage of and now that we have tenure they are put into a situation that is perhaps too secure. The successor should not go back to the previous situation, but the replacement should negate points from both pre-tenure and tenure periods. The seniority system should be denied while the threat of dismissal if one earns a high salary should also be discouraged.

A teacher has suggested to me a replacement of tenure which would still ensure teachers a job as long as they were up-to-date in their particular field. The department chairman would review the people from his study area every year and give a written evaluation. If a teacher would receive three of these bad reports, he would be let go. Outside study in keeping the individual abreast of new information in his subject might also be considered.

To ensure the quality of teaching and education while still protecting their positions, the tenure system must be replaced with a practical alternative. Admittedly, an austerity cutback presents its own special problems. This is not being considered in this editorial.