A reasonable plan to limit tenure for public schoolteachers in Tennessee continues to move forward in the General Assembly. It passed strongly in the Senate, 21-12, with one Democrat, Sen. Douglas Henry of Nashville, voting with Republicans in favor of the measure.
The action moves to the House next.
The bill deserves passage there, and Gov. Bill Haslam is commendably expected to sign it into law if it does pass.
Among other things, the legislation would require that a teacher work five years - not just the current three - to get tenure. It would also provide a means to revoke tenure if a teacher has two consecutive years of poor performance.
The idea behind tenure is that it protects a teacher from being fired for unjust or arbitrary reasons. Of course, we hope that any dismissal of a teacher would be based on reasonable, fair criteria. But no employee in any line of work who consistently fails to meet basic performance standards should be shielded from dismissal by tenure protections.
As a society, we should respect, value and fairly compensate good teachers. But those teachers who do a poor job can significantly harm the educational and career prospects of their students. It is desirable, therefore, to curb tenure protections, as Tennessee and a number of other states are on track to do.