[Martina]

i imagine they'd fire him if they could and they are probably working toward it now. i am sure he has tenure. It takes a while to fire someone with tenure even with good cause.

i think that teachers or anyone in contact with kids should be able to be fired at will for this kind of thing, but i also think that tenure is good.

Most teachers work very hard to get it, and if they did not have it, teachers would get fired for political reasons all the time. Worse, they would be bullied by administrators who could say whether they kept their jobs or not. Admins bully us now. School districts are political nightmares. Most public service related institutions are. Think of police departments. District Administrations are havens for nepotism, corruption, incompetence and abuse of employees. It still goes on even in districts with strong unions.

Teachers have historically been treated like children by administrators. It's a culture that is not employee friendly. Not at all. Think of the post office. There are work cultures that are traditionally hard on their employees. We all know schools -- quite a few -- that are exceptions, but the rule is that administration will jerk teachers around, overburden, blame and scapegoat them in an instant if it serves their very political purposes.

Tenure can be misused by teachers and unions to allow bad or useless teachers to remain. But the upside is that it allows dedicated teachers to stay in place. Think the educational system couldn't get worse? Get rid of tenure and allow administrators to be able to bully and intimidate teachers at will. No one will do the job. It's a recession and still teachers are resigning and leaving the profession in droves.