Protecting Bad Teachers According to the pro-education reform
documentary Waiting for ‘Superman,’ one out of every 57 doctors
loses his or her license to practice medicine. One out of every
97 lawyers loses their license to practice law. In many major
cities, only one out of 1000 teachers is fired for performance-
related reasons. Why? Tenure. Tenure is the practice of
guaranteeing a teacher their job. Originally, this was a due
process guarantee, something intended to work as a check against
administrators capriciously firing teachers and replacing them
with friends or family members. It was also designed to protect
teachers who took political stands the community might disagree
with. Tenure as we understand it today was first seen at the
university level, where professors would work for years and
publish many pieces of inspired academic work before being
awarded what amounted to a job for life. At the elementary and
high school level, tenure has evolved from the original
understanding of “due process” to the