Public School Teachers and Administrators: How should we fire them?

[liberalhistorian]

89. Tenure saved my very-well-qualified

very-competent stepfather's ass a couple times during his career. He had students who didn't do the damn work and who, thus, got the grades they deserved, which was failing. What they also had were noisy parents, some of whom were prominent in the community and didn't like their little darlings getting the grades they deserved. Consequently, they were after his ass. Without tenure, he would have been fired for little reason, despite the fact that he was doing his job.

Teaching is different from other businesses, it should not even be run as a business because, unlike businesses, schools must take ALL students regardless of disability or ability or situation, they cannot throw "defective products" back. Without tenure and complex hiring/firing procedures, teachers can be summarily fired if a parent gets mad at an EARNED grade or if they or an administrator just doesn't like the teacher regardless of how good a job they're doing. My parents began their teaching careers before unions and tenure, they saw it happen all the time.

And the reason you see "all these stories", as you claim, is because, first, you're probably looking for them in your zeal to tear down teachers, and, second, the media is on the destroy-public-education-teachers-are-the-devil bandwagon and are happily joining in on the demonizing, scapegoating and demoralizing of teachers, most of whom do a damned good job in the face of often-overwhelming odds and circumstances. Particularly when they're blamed for factors over which they have no control, such as whether or not their students have parents who promote education and make them do their homework, their family life and abuse/neglect issues, etc., etc., etc. Keep it up. Another five-ten years or so and no one will even want to consider going into teaching. Already, huge numbers of them are retiring early or leaving the profession and who the hell can blame them?