Fourth in a series
Re: “Relax Teacher Tenure Rules, Zeidman Urges”
As an advocate of loosening state rules on teacher tenure – granted after a virtually automatic approval process that begins 18 months into a job – former School Board member Scott Zeidman said it is “okay” that school districts lack the firing freedom of private businesses.
He said the problem of unloading misfit teachers is more complicated, though.
“Now, we not only do not have the right to fire bad teachers, with the 18 months, we better decide quickly whether this teacher is going to be with us for life,” Mr. Zeidman said.
“It is not really two years that you have to decide whether to grant tenure. You have to decide in March.
“Therefore, you have to make a decision within 18 months. That probably is not enough time. It may not even be good for the teacher.”
How would Mr. Zeidman, father of two sons, fix the perceived problem?
“You have to increase the time,” he said. “You have to give administrators (the assessors) an opportunity longer than 18 months.”
Mr. Zeidman, a businessman and attorney, says four years is a “reasonable” time.
“I look at private industry,” he says. “There probably is no job out there where an employer would say “We are pretty much giving you a job for life.”
He concedes that “there are ways you can remove a teacher, but it is so expensive.
“Because districts have little budget for litigation, it becomes a job for life.”
(To be continued)
