Letter: Tenure is important protection for teachers against abuse
In response to, “Retired superintendent addresses teacher tenure,”
– Mr. Dubost’s obviously distorted attack on teacher tenure is full of inaccuracies and shows a lack of respect for tenure laws, teachers, and teacher’s unions. Despite his supposed support for teacher’s unions, he continues arguing about between one and three percent of teachers who he calls” lemons.”
Dubost wants administrators to be allowed to permanently remove these “lemons” to save money, so we can pay the “superstars” what they deserve. Districts will never pay the superstars what they deserve; that’s ludicrous banter used to oppose tenure laws.
At least you admit these “lemon” teachers were hit by administrative staff, so why do you blame teacher’s unions for your mistakes? The administration is responsible for hiring unqualified teachers, not the teacher’s unions. Pass the buck why don’t you! Any school administration should be able to determine whether a teacher is a keeper well within 18 months, considering the time the probationary teachers are already over-observed, group observed and often harassed regularly by lemon administrators looking for raises and promotions.
Then Dubost rants about teacher horror stories from The Los Angeles Unified School District to further bash tenure laws. I absolutely disagree with Mr. Dubost’s twisted “lemons“ analogy of teachers and his circuitous tail of why tenure laws should not apply to school administrators. Tenure for teachers as always and forever will be the teacher’s only defense against abusive bosses/administrators. That’s why we join unions, and by the way, tenure is non-negotiable!
Steve Arnette
Paso Robles
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