Come 2018, tenure for North Carolina public school teachers will officially be a thing of the past. Since 1971, teachers who made it past a four-year probationary period at their schools were entitled to career status, which is not an lifetime guarantee, but did afford teachers some protections.
In the meantime, only the top 25 percent of the teachers in each school district will be allowed tenure. The state legislature must include tenure in their next budget and redesign the current policy if they expect to have a successful education system.
The current policy is flawed because it relies on the theory that the best way to improve the education system is to create a hierarchy in each school. Though this system may seem great on paper, it inherently pits teacher against teacher, eliminating the cohesion that is necessary for an effective school.
This policy finds itself in the same vein of thinking that Gov. Pat McCrory has used in his flawed proposal to pay teachers different salaries for different subjects.
The strongest evidence against this plan comes from the teachers themselves. Not only has the North Carolina Association of Educators sued the state over this policy, but teachers from across the state have vowed to not accept any four-year contracts offered in a show of protest.
Teachers in North Carolina have been subjected to a seemingly constant removal of incentives for the important task of educating the next generation of North Carolinians, and enough is enough.
A well-rounded public school education is of the utmost importance if we want to see well-rounded graduates. In order to make that a reality, we need every single teacher employed by this state to buy in to the idea that the sum is greater than all of its parts. That can’t happen if it becomes harder for teachers to work together.
