You are a bit behind the times if you are not familiar with the new teacher evaluation system. Teachers are subject to stricter evaluations than in the past which include classroom observations, continuing education and student performance on state and federal mandated tests. Half of the evaluation in my district is student performance. Under-performing teachers will not be around long, tenure or not. I have an administrator in my room nearly once a week. If a teacher is not doing their job, they will be on their way out. Principals and schools are under the gun with the new standards, Common Core in most states, to raise test scores so you will see some significant changes.
Finally, you are the ones that elect the officials that negotiate with the school union and you get what you deserve.....

Now now kids, let's not have finger pointing or the principal will be in here giving everyone a time out :)

Federal employees, at least State Dept. Foreign Service, are tenured.

Exactly why there are so many contractors working for the Federal Government. Contractors are "at will" employees.

Hospitals don't give "security" to doctors. Most physicians are independent practitioners or work with others in a group practice. The aggregate medical staff of a hospital is typically in an independent, but affiliated, organization with its own bylaws, rules and regulations.

GG, didn't you have tenure in Ohio? And while you were a teacher did you see other teachers fake it for a couple of years? BTW, my parents sent me to a Catholic school for the first few years. I'm not sure if the nuns had tenure, but I doubt they faked anything in the classroom. It was brutal.

My experience as a school board member is it is hard to get rid of poor teachers and it can cause a new teacher to be terminated if there performance is questionable and they would get tenure if they were not fired.

I think the real question should be - why don't teachers get paid better?

What is it with people.....always coming down on teachers (summers off, class day ends at 3pm, tenure, etc.). With such perks, everyone should want to be a teacher...you'd think! Not so, you work long ours off the clock, you invest your own income on materials to inhance that classroom, you deal with: children with many and varied problems, parents that are helicopter types to those who's interest is none existing, administrations that offen don't stand by you, a community that is ready to "hang you high" for anything and everything. You'd wonder why anyone would teach! Teaching is a vocation...a craft that starts with enthusiasm and later is perfected with experience (hence tenure). Sure their are teachers who lose the fight swimming against the current and become mediocre at best. But the majority work tiredlessly for and with the next generation. So throw them the tidbit....tenure! Oh, by the way I worked in a special needs preschool and my husband taught 35 years with high schoolers. We know of which we speak. We both loved being in the classroom...would not want to do anything else, but it is NOT the easy job non-teachers make it out to be!

Exactly!
Tenure was initiated as a way to attract teachers since the pay was not very good. So...the pay isn't great, but we can offer you job security.
Teachers overpaid? I don't think so.

Not to sound flippant, but the short answer is supply and demand. The skill set required to perform that job is not so unique or difficult to attain that the market must pay a higher (attracting) wage.


(Back to the OP: From my lay perspective, it's nearly impossible to get terrible K-12 teachers fired in CA. With tenure being recently overturned in CA, there's f-i-n-a-l-l-y hope.)

I agree with almost everything you say and I can tell that you KNOW and lived dedication. But I don't think any job should be sealed in. I don't think our good teachers are paid enough and I don't think our lack luster teachers need to continue on. It used to be that teachers always attended the PTA meetings and that they went out of their way to do extra things.

I wish I could thank almost all of my teachers for the dedicated effort that somehow propelled this motherless child.

State Avg. Starting Salary 2012-2013

Alabama $36,198
Alaska $44,166
Arkansas $32,691
Arizona $31,874
California* $41,259
Colorado $32,126
Connecticut $42,924
District of Columbia* $51,539
Delaware $39,338
Federal Education Association $45,751
Florida $35,166
Georgia $33,664
Hawaii $41,027
Iowa $33,226
Idaho $31,159
Illinois $37,166
Indiana $34,696
Kansas $33,386
Kentucky $35,166
Louisiana $38,655
Massachusetts $40,600
Maryland $43,235
Maine $31,835
Michigan $35,901
Minnesota $34,505
Missouri $30,064
Mississippi $31,184
Montana $27,274
North Carolina $30,778
North Dakota $32,019
Nebraska $30,844
New Hampshire $34,280
New Jersey $48,631
New Mexico $31,960
Nevada $35,358
New York $43,839
Ohio $33,096
Oklahoma $31,606
Oregon $33,549
Pennsylvania $41,901
Rhode Island $39,196
South Carolina $32,306
South Dakota $29,851
Tennessee $34,098
Texas $38,091
Utah $33,081
Virginia $37,848
Vermont $35,541
Washington $36,335
Wisconsin $33,546
West Virginia $32,533
Wyoming $43,269

A serf is a serf is a serf...ugh